Greetings from Big MT
by Liquid
Summary: Six months after leaving the Sierra Madre Casino, Tonya Greene's attempt at a normal life is ended when the Legion arrives to purify New Reno. Fleeing for her life, she becomes trapped inside Big MT, a pre-war facility where an eccentric Think Tank battles the evil Dr. Mobius... but who are the real villains? And what are their plans for Tonya?
1. Chapter 1 New Reno's Sweetheart

**Greetings from Big MT**

 **Chapter One: New Reno's Sweetheart**

New Reno, aside from New Vegas way down south, was the largest city in Nevada, and a hub for Traders and Caravan Companies alike. Although claimed by the NCR and therefore subject to its taxes and somewhat oppressive laws, the city was also a hotbed of the chem trade, as well as a large distributer of _locally sourced_ Pornography, and gambling casinos. Being farther to the north, the temperatures were far colder, especially in the winter time when snow was falling… like now.

The people of this city were all bundled up as they trudged through a foot of snow on the ground, most of it wet and slushy, while the dark clouds above were heavy with even more to come, but hey, as long as the falling snow wasn't _green_ there was no need to worry, right? At least, that was what the local business owners would say, including the owner of the Desperado Club, one of the largest casinos in New Reno, and playing house for the most talented acts in Nevada.

A number of years before, during the time of the _Enclave_ occupation, the Desperado Club had been a dingy low-end dive, but thanks to the NCR's booming economy, the place had been actually reworked into something halfway respectable. Instead of bare concrete walls, an ivory-white color made the whole place look bright and happy, as did the working lights and properly insulated floors. This afternoon the casino's main theater had guests seated around every table, not because of the heavily discounted lunch special, but because of their top billed performer, who was about to go onstage.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, your attention." The heavy middle aged man in a white smoking jacket said in a thick accent. "Hope all are enjoying the _Brahmin Chops_ , but now we ask that you lift your eyes to stage, for serenade by wonderful girl with body of Goddess and voice of Angel. Ladies and Gentlemen, I _Jesus Mordino III_ and _the Desperado Club_ present, _New Reno's Sweetheart_ … _Ms. Tonya Greene_."

There was a light applause as the music started, and then Tonya slowly came out from behind the curtain looking like the spitting image of Vera Keyes as she walked up to the edge of the stage. After leaving the Sierra Madre and its curses behind, the Courier had gone home to New Reno, and although still taking jobs with the Mojave Express whenever she got itchy feet, for the last six months she had been exploiting the hell out of being stuck with the voice of the pre-war starlet… as well as the dress which she had kept.

" _You had plenty money, nineteen twenty-two_." She began to the captivated audience. " _You let other women make a fool of you, why don't you do right? Like some other men do_."

It was true that Tonya didn't like to stay in one place for very long, but during the weeks that could pass between a delivery job, singing at the Desperado Club was a great way to make ends meet. Thanks to having Vera's voice, whereas she hadn't even been able to carry a tune before, all of the casinos in town had fought over her, and the tips from customers were, well… _a lot_ more than she could have made doing deliveries.

" _If you had prepared twenty years ago_." She continued, smiling sweetly as customers filled the tip jars. " _You wouldn't be a-wandrin' now from door to door, why don't you do right? Like some other men do_."

Performing in front of a crowd wasn't _nearly_ a difficult as Dean Domino had made it sound while they were at the Sierra Madre; just leave the stage and keep singing while walking around the room, brush against a customer here, wink at one there, and the tips would come flying in. Did she get groped once in a while? Yes. Did customers sometimes offer large amounts of caps to sleep with her? Yes. But the Courier wasn't a _Freemont Street Hooker_ , as that Ghoul had once called her, so the offers were declined… by casino security if her own words weren't enough.

" _I fell for your jivin' and I took you in_." She sang, lightly rubbing a man's shoulder while passing. " _Now all you got to offer me's a drink of gin, why don't you do right? Like some other men do… get out of here and get me some money, too_."

Applause filled the room when the song was over, followed by whistles and a few shouted marriage proposals while she returned to the stage; making sure to wave and smile as cutely as possible before vanishing behind the curtain… where she was able to finally take off those damn heels that were absolutely _killing_ her feet. Why heels, she thou? Why did everyone insist that _all_ female performers had to wear heels? All they did was hurt her arches and force her to take smaller steps, just so that the customers could see her _ass_ move a bit more.

"Tonya, sweetheart, _great_ number." Jesus said, coming backstage as the orchestra started to play. "The jars are _full_ of caps, and casino full of suckers, er, _customers_ to play games and slots. Oh, had good idea to go with outfit… here, put this on over cute button nose."

From out of Jesus's pocket, he produced a pair of reading glasses, or at least the frames since the lenses were missing. According to the big man, if she went out and sang a sad song like _Johnny Guitar_ , the customers would look at her and say _'aw, sad lonely little bookworm, just needs right man to love her'_ , and then they would give her more tips, the casino would get more business, basically everyone would be a winner. Unfortunately, the Courier had no intention of singing God damn Johnny Guitar… bad enough it was always playing on the radio.

"Almost forgot, new man in town wants to invest in casino; rich man, could be new partner." He continued, picking up her shoes and handing them to her. "Wants to meet _New Reno's Sweetheart_ , so put on cute heels, polish cute smile, and push up cute boobs… help me close deal, and I cut you in for _ten percent_ casino profits."

"But, Mr. Mordino, I don't know _anything_ about business." The Courier protested after putting her heels back on. "My resume says _Courier_ and _Lounge Singer_ , not _Business Lady_."

Immediately correcting her that she was a _headliner_ , not some mere _lounge singer_ , the big man motioned for her to follow him, and that it didn't matter what she knew of business, since the idea was to make the investor stare at her enough to make him not pay so much attention to the terms of the deal, but not enough so that he thought he was getting ripped off. These kind of things took finesse, cunning, and beautiful brunettes with green eyes who look like the girl on the pre-war posters.

Whether it was true or not that Tonya was a descendent of Vera Keyes, the resemblance was striking enough for Jesus to take the old posters of her performances and simply change the name, which according to him, saved a ton of caps on photographers and artists. Adding to his windfall of finding the newest and most popular singer in New Reno, cutting in a new partner would make Jesus's chances better for being able to retire sometime in his life, since the investor was a younger man, and the big man's own son was, from his own words, a failure.

"My son is such fool." He continued as they walked out of the theater. "I tell him, take life by horns like _all_ men of Mordino family; I tell him take over casino one day, I tell him marry beautiful Tonya Greene, I tell him be _man_ , but _no_. Son wants to be _artist_ , you know what I find _great artist_ doing other day? I catch him with _New Reno's Sweetheart_ poster on bed, and son just _pounding weasel_ while…

"Mr. Mordino, I don't need to know that." She interrupted, trying to push the visual out of his head. "I mean, you can tell me all about your son _after_ the deal with your new investor. Didn't you tell me that business always comes first?"

The big man hesitated for a second, and then laughed; telling the Courier that she was absolutely right, while also giving her a playful swat on the rear. Tonya didn't have to worry about Jesus actually trying anything with her, like people like _Dean Domino_ and _Aurelius of Phoenix_ had done… mostly since his wife would probably skin him alive if he did, but there was certainly a lot of uh… _playful touching_ in the culture that his family was descended from pre-war.

"Son is miserable failure, so must tell _you_." Jesus said when they made a stop at the bar. "Most important part of business deal, besides having beautiful woman for distraction, is having quick drink to stay loose. Investor has traveled long way, came with family from place called uh, _Two Sun_ or something… far away, very hot, so we show him how _cool_ New Reno can be, eh?"

"Wait a second, Mr. Mordino." Tonya said, suddenly realizing what he had just said. " _Where_ did you just say he was before here?"

Jesus repeated that the investor came there from Two Sun, which started to make the Courier nervous, since it was primarily Caesar's Legion who did the trading in Arizona… and this feeling deepened when he showed her the _strange coin_ that the investor had given to him as a memento. Although she only had cause to see these kinds of currency one time before, the gold disc with the balding head of an old man on one side and the figure of a bull on the other was recognized immediately.

"Mr. Mordino, that's a _Legion Aureus_." She said urgently after giving it back to him. "No matter where your investor got it from, if it's possible that there are _Legion Scouts_ near New Reno, then we need to let the NCR Troopers know."

"Tonya, sweetheart, relax, eh?" The big man urged, suddenly looking behind her. "Can worry about coin later, here comes investor so look cute. Ah, welcome to Desperado Club, Mr. Phoenix… and here is New Reno's Sweetheart, herself, the lovely Ms. Tonya Greene."

Trying to push the nervous about seeing the Legion again out of her mind, the Courier took a deep breath, put on her most charming smile, and turned around… only to suddenly feel like her blood had frozen in her veins when she saw who was standing next to Jesus. She couldn't help gasping a little and swallowing hard when he made eye contact with her, and she was shaking a little when he took her hand.

"Such a pleasure to meet you, Tonya." Aurelius of Phoenix said, smirking a bit as he kissed her hand. "I am so happy to be in your home town, _amans mei_."


	2. Chapter 2 The Lottery

**Greetings from Big MT**

 **Chapter Two: The Lottery**

Trying not to panic while Aurelius and Jesus talked business, which was especially when they sat at the rounded booth, where the Centurion sat right up against her with his arm around her waist, it took all of the Courier's willpower not to freak out while he was stroking her leg, since she knew the kind of danger that the casino's owner would be in if she revealed him. So her former tormentor just sat there, wearing casual clothes like any wealthy wastelander would, and Tonya's mouth ran dry when he suddenly leaned over and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek when Jesus turned to get another bottle for them.

"Yes, I think me and my family are going to be quite… _effective_ in this town." Aurelius said with a smile. "I tell you, Mr. Mordino, you won't even recognize the city when we're done with it, and your casino… has given me _exactly_ what I was looking for."

Squeezing the Courier's thigh again before they all got up from the table, the Centurion and Jesus shook hands, with a promise of drawing up the proper paperwork for their merger tomorrow, and then a good laugh about how much the NCR _loves_ their paperwork. Aurelius kissed Tonya's hand again before leaving, and for a moment she was given hope that he somehow hadn't recognized her. After all, last time he saw her she was covered in Mojave dust, and sounded completely different… either way, his presence meant trouble for New Reno.

"Tonya, what's wrong, eh?" The big man asked, putting his hand on her shoulder. "We just close great deal, no? Why you look so scared?"

"Mr. Mordino, that man is from the _Legion_." She stammered, shaking a bit more. "I've met him before, he's a really high up commander, he… hurt me back in Arizona."

All the Courier could see at that moment was what had happened almost a year before, when she had made a delivery to Aurelius' camp in Arizona. She remembered seeing a slave whipped literally to death, and another slave, a woman this time, screaming as she was nailed to a wooden cross shortly after… all so that she would sleep with him without a fight. These particular slaves, he had said, had been taken from a recently conquered town nearby, and Tonya feared that she might have joined them if she hadn't escaped after the Centurion was done with her.

"Tonya, sweetheart, you're safe here, don't worry." Jesus assured her, sitting her back down and getting the bottle. "I don't know much about _Legion_ , but if new investor hurt you, and you're sure was him, then I have security make him disappear into wall of basement, eh? You're good girl, Tonya, I protect you like own daughter… well, more like hot stepdaughter."

The big man's words made her feel a little better, but the NCR still needed to be told what was going on, so once the big man returned to business, the Courier went to her dressing room and changed into something a little more appropriate for running around outside, since she was going to tell the Troopers herself about this threat, herself. Now bundled up in a heavier coat and trousers like the ones she used on delivery jobs as she left the casino, Tonya's boots sunk a little into the snow with each step while on her way to the NCR Detachment Headquarters at the end of the next block.

Unfortunately, however, the building was empty when she walked in; the door was unlocked and the lights were on, but there were no Troopers, inside or patrolling the perimeter like they usually did. In fact, now that she was thinking about it, she hadn't seen _any_ of the NCR Troopers at all since leaving the Desperado Club… not even the off-duty ones stumbling down the street after drinking too much, and honestly this frightened her.

Hoping to see even a single armed Soldier of the New California Republic while walking down the streets toward her home, and becoming more nervous all the time when she realized that none of the chem pushers or gangs were around either. On one hand it was nice to be able to go home without having some loser offer a free first hit of Jet or Hydra, since she was still trying to shake off the last of her own Med-X addiction with the help of a really expensive drug called Fixer… but then why was she so scared that a tear ran down her cheek?

From her second story apartment, only a block away from the Desperado Club, she could look out the window and see that the streets were becoming sparsely populated, but that was probably because it was nearing dinner time, not that she was hungry as she pushed open the door and ran inside. The Courier had been planning to take a trip back to California pretty soon anyway, somewhere safe like Shady Sands or Junk Town, it was just going to happen a bit earlier than planned, as she threw a light traveling bag together.

"The old Roman Gods must love me, Tonya." A voice said behind her, making her spin around. "You really had my Frumantarii fooled for a long time, thinking maybe you were a cousin or maybe a sister... but your reaction today cinched it… you clean up nice, _scortum personalem mei_."

"Oh, you startled me, Mr. Phoenix." She replied, hoping her new voice would still fool him. "But my name's not Tonya, see… my _real_ name is Vera Keyes… Tonya Greene's just a stage name because it sounds more exotic."

Okay, that might have been the dumbest thing that she ever said, and Aurelius of Phoenix wasn't fooled, instead pushing the door closed before walking over to her. She found herself moving away until she backed up against the table near the wall, leaving Tonya with nowhere to go except to lean backwards as the Centurion walked up to within inches of her. Letting out a scared yelp uncontrollably when he reached up toward her face, he chuckled to himself while touching the edge of the barely visible scar on her neck instead.

"It was _this_ that gave you away, you sneaky little profligate." He explained, lightly running his finger down the length. "Great Caesar told me of machines that could change whole identities through surgery… surgery like the one _you_ had… right? I _love_ your new voice, by the way; your old one was high and kind of annoying… why do you think I kept my hand over your mouth when we were having sex?"

"Why are you doing this to me?" The Courier asked, her voice shaking. "You got what you wanted, so just… leave me alone."

Shaking his head and chuckling again, the Centurion informed her that things in this city were no longer so simple; Caesar had ordered him and his men to begin scouting the land called New Reno for purification almost a year before, and it had been simply luck that one of the disguised Legionaries noticed her when she moved in almost six months ago. In fact, the purification of this city had only been held off until he could verify whether or not New Reno's Sweetheart was really her, and now there was nothing to stop the _Lottery_.

"Lottery?" She asked when he finally moved his hand away. "I don't understand."

"Of course you _don't_ , you're an uneducated _profligate_." Aurelius replied, grabbing her by the hair and pulling her over toward the window. "Look out there at your _home_ , Tonya; see how the streets are empty? Let me explain to you exactly _why_ that is."

Over the past year the Legion had brought in enough Legionaries in plain clothes to actually _outnumber_ the people of New Reno, who were now being silently rounded up in their homes and businesses just as they were sitting down to dinner. The Centurion had also paid the local gangs and chem pushers handsomely to do the same thing to the NCR Troopers, but now that the threat of the _Two-headed Bear_ was silenced, the true reward of the gangs was to be rounded up as well.

"Once the sniveling cowards of New Reno are taken and bound." He continued, tightening his grip on her hair so she had to look where he wanted. "All of them will be given a little slip of paper with some numbers on it, since Great Caesar has commanded that not all of the people need to be punished… just _some_ of them."

When everyone was given their paper, the numbers would be called one by one, and the first group was known as the _lucky losers_ , since they would receive a quick death with no suffering. The second group to have their numbers called, and the Courier was in tears by the time she heart this part, since she had seen it with her own eyes, were the not so lucky losers, since they were the ones who were crucified and either burned alive or simply left there to rot in place. And then the third group got to keep their lives, but were taken away by the Legion to be broken and become slaves for the rest of their lives.

"By then there are only two left." Aurelius explained, seeming pleased with the process. "The runner up gets to live and stay free, but will get his legs broken, or maybe his arms depending on my mood, and then there's the _lucky winner_. The lucky winner gets to go free unscathed so that he can tell the world about what the Legion did, to spread fear and lower morale within the NCR. Sounds like fun, yeah? How about we go and join in?"

He started moving her toward the door of the apartment, but received a surprise when Tonya stomped down on his foot, brought her fist back into his groin, and then slammed the back of her head into his face, resulting not only in the Centurion losing his grip on her, but also in him nearly falling down while stumbling backwards. The Courier was terrified of the Legion and what they were capable of doing, but New Reno was her home, and she was about to attack him again, when Aurelius righted himself before… starting to laugh.

"Well, this is really _something_." He said, wiping the small amount of blood off his lip. "Usually women just cower or try to run away unless they have a gun, but you're the _first_ one I've ever seen try to fight me off with their _bare hands_ … makes me want you more for some reason."

Opening his coat and taking out a large pistol, Tonya thought he was going to shoot her, but received a surprise of her own when the Centurion set it down on the nearby table. Next he took out a large kind of sword from a hidden sheath up his back that might have once been a machete, and also discarded it next to the pistol. He did the same thing with a knife in his boot, before opening his coat again to show her that he was no longer carrying any weapons, but sadly… neither was she.

"I'm going to admit some weakness for you, Tonya, since our last encounter." Aurelius continued. "Some of my men even thought that I was weak for letting you get away, so how about we make this _interesting_ … since you want to fight so badly?"

The terms that he was suggesting were simple enough; they would fight hand to hand, and if the Courier won, then New Reno would be spared. He would call off his Legionaries, and get on his knees and kiss her feet in front of the whole city, admitting defeat, and then explaining to Caesar why he ordered a full retreat back to the next claimed Legion territory. If she were to _lose_ , however, that would be a whole different deal.

"If you lose, then your city burns with all your loved ones in it." He explained, getting a serious tone. "You'll be bound and collared as a slave, and then after the city is gone, you're going to be my wife with Caesar's blessing, and Tonya… you won't _believe_ how many children we're going to have."

Losing offered a frightening prospect, but this contest also gave her the chance to save her city from the Legion, as long as he kept his word. Outside the window she could see the commotion starting down the street, where a crowd was gathering… no, more like being _herded_ into the square, meaning that the lottery was about to start. If everyone in the city was really there, then this fight was the only chance she had to save them… so as scared as she was… the Courier agreed.


	3. Chapter 3 Tonya of Phoenix

**Greetings from Big MT**

 **Chapter Three: Tonya of Phoenix**

As soon as she agreed to the contest between them, Tonya got into her fighting stance, fists up with elbows tucked in, as she approached Aurelius of Phoenix. He swung first, though, throwing out a wide hook that she had to lean back to avoid, but that allowed her to kick him in the back of the leg when the punch made him turn. Going down to one knee, the Centurion sent back an elbow at her chest, which the Courier was able to stop by looping her arm under his shoulder from above, before finally giving him a knee to the face that knocked him onto his back.

Wow, she thought as Aurelius recovered, Dean Domino had been _right_ ; it really _was_ amazing what could be done with some free time and the complete collector's library of _Pugilism Illustrated_ , which she had taken from his villa before leaving the Sierra Madre forever. Granted, she had only gotten about six months to read through them, versus the two _centuries_ that the Ghoul had gotten, but clearly the reading had been effective.

"You are… more than you seem." The Centurion said, getting to his feet. "Great Caesar once told me about ancient tribes of women… _Arizonans_ or something… who could fight like any man… could you be descended from them? I like the thought of an Arizonan being my wife, Tonya."

Now he came at her again, this time faster and with more precision as if Aurelius had been holding back before, and while the Courier was able to stop his next punch by blocking it with both arms, his next one caught her in the ribs, making her double over sideways so that she had to catch herself by leaning on the table. Without hesitation the Centurion raised his leg up into the air, bringing it straight down so that if she hadn't moved out of the way his foot would have hit her back instead of breaking the wooden table in half.

Tonya caught his leg on her shoulder, shoving toward him while hooking her foot behind his other leg so that she was able to tackle him to the floor, where she got on top of Aurelius and started to slug him in the face. Pinning his one arm with her leg, and restraining his other hand by interlocking their fingers and bending backwards, she struck him in the mouth again and again so that his lip and nose were bleeding, and she just kept hitting him, for both New Reno and what he had done to her in the past, until she got tired and had to stop.

"That's it, we're done." The Courier said, trying to catch her breath. "Now get your _goons_ out of New Reno… it's over."

"Aw, Tonya, I hoped you were smarter than that." Aurelius said while starting to laugh. "When it comes to fighting the Legion… it's _never_ over."

Now smiling at her as his grip on her fingers tightened, Tonya couldn't help crying out when he slowly overpowered her so that his hand was the one bending hers backwards, and then he simply lifted up with his pinned arm, having enough strength to flip her over like a pancake. She landed on her back, but couldn't get up since he was still bending her hand backwards… at least, not until he got up and pulled her up to her feet without seeming to exert any effort at all.

Before the Courier even knew what was happening, the Centurion pulled her forward while bringing his knee up into her stomach hard enough to knock the wind out of her, and then punching her in the face just as soon as she bent forward. Tonya saw light and stars from the hit, and she hadn't even realized that she was sent reeling backwards until she fell against the guardrail on the walkway outside her apartment door, but her opponent wasn't finished.

Rushing after her and pinning Tonya to the guardrail with his body, Aurelius backhanded her hard enough to make her cough and lean sideways, before grabbing her by the hair and waistband of her trousers… and tossing her down the nearby stairs. Tumbling forward and seeing the sky pass by her vision a couple times, the Courier landed face first on the concrete below, and this time she wasn't able to get up as quickly… okay, maybe at all.

She was just starting to be able to move her limbs again, when a shadow fell over her, and then Tonya groaned in pain while her wrists were being forced behind her back. Aurelius pinned her like this by putting one of his knees onto both wrists, and then he took something out of his pocket… something that was looped around her neck, and that made her cough when it was tightened.

"You are now the property of the Legion." The Centurion said, pulling the collar a bit tighter until she gagged and gasped for breath. "Now how about w go see how the _Lottery_ is going, _slave_?"

Without giving her any choice, Aurelius lifted her body off the ground, and finally loosened the collar around her neck enough to let her breathe by the time he set her on her feet. He kept hold of her wrists with one hand, though, forcing her to walk toward the crowd by holding her collar with the other, and randomly pulling just enough so that she would cough a little now and then.

A scream was the first thing that she heard from the crowd when they arrived, and that scream came from Jesus Mordino as two Legionaries held him down, while a third tied him to a wooden cross with thick rope. As much as she wanted to look away, Aurelius forced her to watch as the big man's cross was stood up, only to have them hold down a shrieking NCR Trooper on the next one, but this young man's arms and legs weren't tied… they were secured by long spiked that had to be hammered in, making his screams even worse when his cross was propped up.

"Hold, everyone, hold!" The Centurion called, stopping the process as he brought the Courier forward. "I have an announcement: Under Legion Law, and with prior blessing from Great Caesar, _himself_ , I hereby take this slave, Tonya Greene, and claim her as my _wife_ with you _all_ as witness. Men of the Legion, and profligates of New Reno, I give you _Tonya of Phoenix_."

All of the Legionaries applauded for a moment, and then after a quick forced kiss the Courier was pushed over to one of the Legionaries to be restrained while her new _husband_ took the pile of papers so that he could call the next lottery number, himself. When it was called, it was a woman who screamed this time as another NCR Trooper was brought out, and this time they ripped off her uniform before pinning her down to the cross. She begged for mercy, yelling that she would do anything to be spared, but then her words became awful, ear-splitting shrieks as she was nailed to the wooden frame.

In the excitement that came along with this poor woman being propped up, the man holding her let go with one of his arms for a second, and this distraction was all that Tonya needed to mount a desperate escape attempt. New Reno was doomed, that much was obvious, but there was nothing to stop her from grabbing onto the Legionary's arm, and hip-slinging him over onto the ground. Next grabbing his sword, thanks to the Centurion showing her where they hid them, she swung the blade, slicing the throat of the next man who tried to grab her, and then she screamed while tossing the blade at Aurelius.

The makeshift sword spun through the air, making the Centurion scream and fall to the ground as it struck him in the face, and after grabbing the sword from the one whose throat she had cut, the Courier gave the one she had flipped a good slice across the shoulder, before running for her life. Blindly choosing a street and sprinting down the pavement, she didn't see one of the other Legionaries getting ready to throw a spear… only to have the wounded Aurelius pull the weapon from his hands, and strike him with it.

"Don't use a _spear_ , you dolt, that's my _wife_!" He yelled, holding his bleeding face and stumbling. "Bring her back to me, _alive_ and _unharmed_!"

A couple of the Legionaries started to chase her now, and… oh, my _God_ , they could run fast, quickly gaining ground on the already injured Courier. Some more of them joined in, making a total of five that were after her, and there was no way that Tonya would have been able to fight off that many, even if she _hadn't_ just been thrown down the stairs. Maybe there was a building she could hide in, or some way she could lose them… like a _truck_.

No, not the _possibility_ of a truck, but an actual parked vehicle up ahead on the corner of the next block. It was a delivery vehicle with a bed full of small wooden crates, but it was a hell of a lot better than staying on foot, so she pulled open the door and jumped inside, sighing heavily with relief to discover that the keys were hidden up in the sun-visor. The five plain-clothes Legionaries were almost right on top of her by the time the truck's engine struggled to a start, and then they got a lot closer when she threw it in reverse, and stomped on the gas.

"Holy shit!" One of them yelled while they tried to stop and jump out of the way.

Her new vehicle shook and jumped while they passed both over and under it, killing two of her pursuers with the tires, while the others were just thrown around, but she didn't see them again after turning the wheel hard to the side so that her truck would be facing the crowd in the square. The street behind her had been a dead end, meaning that the only way for the Courier to escape was to pass _right through_ where the lottery was taking place… right where the wounded Aurelius was leaning on one of the crosses and holding his face.

"All right, you son of a bitch." She said, putting it in drive. "Here's a little wedding present."

Stomping the gas, most of the Legionaries and captives dove out of the way as her truck barreled down the street, giving the people of New Reno a brief window to either run for their lives or fight back, but more importantly giving the Courier an unobstructed path to her new husband, who went flipping and spinning over the truck's hood and roof with a hard _whump_. Of course, she also clipped the side of the cross he had been leaning on, causing her to momentarily lose control of the vehicle and slide sideways into the wall of the Desperado Club… where she gasped as a bunch of people leapt onto the roof and bed of her truck during the seconds that she was stopped.

"Aw crap." She said to herself, trying to get moving again. "Crap, crap, crap, crap."

There was no way for her to tell whether or not the people now clinging to her truck were Legionaries or not, since all of them were wearing normal clothes instead of sports equipment and skirts, so the only safe thing to do was to start driving as fast as possible. The Legion had already subdued the people who tried to fight or run away, putting them all on their knees if not simply killing them, so there was nothing that the Courier could have done at that point except get out of New Reno.

"Aurelius!" One of the Legionaries yelled, helping their commander up. "Aurelius, are you all right?! I swear, we'll hunt down that slippery little bitch and…

"You'll _not_ insult my wife!" The Centurion yelled, punching him in the face and knocking him down. "Put the word out; two _hundred_ Aureus to the man who finds Tonya of Phoenix, and another _three_ hundred if they bring her back… now… where were we with the Lottery?"


	4. Chapter 4 Survivors of New Reno

**Greetings from Big MT**

 **Chapter Four: Survivors of New Reno**

Watching through the rearview mirror as her truck tore across the snow covered Mojave away from New Reno, Tonya could only feel sad as she saw some of the buildings start to burn. This was probably the only time in her life that she was glad her mother had passed away years before so she didn't have to go through the destruction of their home, but now she had been left with nothing, just this old truck with a bunch of people clinging to the top that might or might not have been the enemy… but no weapons or even her precious Fixer.

The worst part about trying to escape through snow, besides how cold the temperature was, was that the tire tracks being left by her truck were really easy to follow. Not enough new snow was falling to cover them, especially since the snow was so wet and slushy, giving the Courier no choice but to keep driving… even though without any Fixer the symptoms of her Med-X addiction were starting to resurface, beginning with shaking hands as she tried to hold the wheel steady.

An even colder wind started blowing as the sun was going down, but even though the truck had no windows it was better than being back in the city, since after reaching the top of a large hill she was able to see that all of New Reno was in flames when taking a look back. The burning city was getting farther away now, and there was no sign of Legion pursuit, but the Courier still kept driving aimlessly over the Mojave for an hour… and then another… and then another until the light of the full moon was reflecting off the snow.

"Hey in there, stop!" A woman's voice called while pounding on the roof. "I'm pretty sure we got away, just stop this thing for a minute!"

Voices started to join hers a few seconds later, agreeing that it was time to stop since they couldn't even _see_ the glowing fires of New Reno any longer, so Tonya waited until they reached the valley between two more hills before carefully bringing the truck to a stop. Once the vehicle was no longer moving, she cut the engine to save fuel, since honestly she didn't know how much was in the tank, and now the five people on top of the truck were climbing down.

Keeping the stolen sword with her as she got out of the truck's cab to meet them, the Courier sighed with relief when she saw that three of them were wearing NCR uniforms, and that two of them were women, so they _couldn't_ be Legionaries. The fourth was a man who she honestly had never seen before, but at least the last one who got down, looking like a younger and skinnier version of his father, was a familiar face.

"We made it, Tonya, I thought we were _dead_." Jesus Mordino Junior said as he came up to her and hugged her tight. "Where did you even learn to drive like that, that was _amazing_ back there. Let me help you get this thing off."

She had almost forgotten about the slave collar around her neck during all of the excitement, but it was also nice to be able to take an unrestricted breath once Junior had helped her remove it. Of course, the relieved mood of their successful escape was interrupted when one of the NCR Troopers walked up and pulled the sword out of her shaking hand. Backing off as soon as it was in her possession, this blonde haired woman held the weapon in a defensive manner while ordering the other two to watch the others, meaning that she was likely the highest ranking of the trio.

"All right, everyone just relax and keep your hands where I can see them." The blonde ordered. "I'm Lieutenant Layla, _NCR Military Police_ , now if any of you have any more weapons, I'm giving you one chance to turn them over to Corporal Fretwell and Private Gleeson; and _you_ just put your hands on the truck and keep them there, _Mrs. Phoenix_."

"Uh, Lieutenant, you know she hit her husband with a _truck_ , right?" The other female, Gleeson reminded her. "I don't really think that she's a Legion supporter."

The others all joined in with their support, reminding the Lieutenant of all the things that had happened during the Lottery; Tonya being dragged in all beaten up, killing the two Legionaries and throwing the sword at Aurelius, then killing more of them with the truck, and being the only reason that any of them had been able to escape with their lives. The Lieutenant wasn't having it, though, reminding them that the Legion was known for their tricks, and that she was taking charge of the group until they reached another NCR outpost.

"You know, this is why the Legion doesn't let women into combat." Their last member said as he stepped forward. "You're over-emotional, weak, and you prefer to just stand there yacking while a man would just do _this_."

Kicking Layla's hand so that she dropped the sword, he punched her in the mouth so that the Lieutenant fell down, before spinning around and kicking Fretwell so that he went down as well, and finally grabbing Gleeson in a kind of sleeper hold before the brunette even realized what was happening. Lifting her off her feet so that all the Trooper could do was flail around, their last member tossed her into the two others, knocking them all down again, before picking up the sword.

"I believe this is yours, Tonya of Phoenix." He said, holding the weapon out to her. "I am Veteran Legionary Julius… _formerly_ Veteran Legionary now, I suppose. Your humiliation and defeat of Aurelius of Phoenix has inspired me to take my life into my own hands, and hopefully the others will believe that I'm hunting you, until we get far enough away and go our separate ways."

This _person_ went on to talk about how there had been whispers of the Centurion's weakness ever since the Courier first managed to escape form him in Arizona, and how there were many of Caesar's men, especially the younger ones, who desired to escape their life of marching and death at the hands of the aging megalomaniac, but it appeared that he had bene the only one brave enough to act.

"First off, my name is _Greene_." Tonya answered in a dark tone. "Tonya _Greene_ … I did not agree to marry that _shithead_ , and I never will. Second, you and your little friends just burned my birthplace to the ground over nothing… _nothing_! And now you have the _balls_ to come at me with the most… _poorly_ put together cover story that I've ever heard, like you think I'm an idiot?"

With that the Courier started to swing the blade at Julius, only to be stopped when Troopers Fretwell and Gleeson grabbed her arms, while their Lieutenant took possession of the weapon once again. It would have been so much easier to just kill the Legionary on the spot, but of course Lieutenant Layla had to be one of those bleeding heart types who announced that the NCR doesn't _kill_ prisoners of war.

"Tie Julius's hands, and put him on the back of the truck." She ordered once the Troopers released Tonya. "We'll take him with us to the next outpost, and then hand him over to the commander for interrogation. Fretwell and Gleeson, you ride in the back with him, and… Junior was it? You ride up front; I need your local knowledge to navigate."

For a moment it was funny that there had been no mention of where the Lieutenant wanted the Courier to sit, but then as everyone else piled into the truck, with Layla now behind the wheel, it became obvious that the NCR Troopers were leaving her behind. But they couldn't do that; Tonya was an NCR Citizen, and there was room on the back of the truck even with Julius now being held as a prisoner.

"Sorry, but I just don't trust _New Reno's Sweetheart_ at face value." Layla continued. "The enemy commander _married_ you, for God's sake, and besides… I don't remember seeing _you_ on your knees with a number."

"You're absolutely right, I _didn't_ have a number." The Courier hissed as the engine was started. "That's because I was too busy _fighting_ , instead of _surrendering_ like you all did. I don't see any bruises forming on _your_ face, Layla… why is that?"

"Oh, come on, you can't just leave a _girl_ out here all alone." Julius insisted, sitting up in the back of the truck. "She'll get lost or starve to death or something."

All three of the Troopers seemed set on leaving her behind, even though a look in Private Gleeson's eyes said that she was sorry, but felt helpless about the situation, only being a _Private_ and all. Tonya's last hope was an appeal for Junior to say something, but her boss's son could only shrug just as helplessly as Gleeson, before promising her that he would _send help after they got to the next outpost_. Well, that was great, just God damn _great_ , the Courier thought as the truck drove up the next hill… what the hell was she supposed to do now?

Suddenly there was some commotion from the truck, resulting with someone falling off, and the Lieutenant's voice yelling very loudly to _forget about them_ , as the truck didn't even slow down. The Courier had been able to see the two Troopers standing up before Layla yelled at them to _leave the idiot to his fate_ , and then the vehicle was gone, leaving the lone figure just lying there in the wet snow. It must have been Junior, she thought hopefully while trudging her way up the hill; she knew that her boss's son wouldn't _really_ abandon her like that, but then these hopes were dashed after finally reaching the top.

"Hey, untie me, would you?" Julius asked, craning his neck to look up at her. "The NCR might be cowards and weaklings, but they sure know how to tie a knot."

"Untie you?" Tonya asked, not sure whether to smile or scowl. "Sure, I'll untie you… with my _foot_!"

The Legionary groaned when she started kicking him in the sides and the back, and his attempts to roll away or ball up to protect himself only allowed her to kick him in more places, not stopping until she was completely out of breath. By this time the truck was long gone, along with her only remaining friend, and the Troopers who were _supposed_ to protect all NCR Citizens. So there she was, in the middle of frozen nowhere, with no weapons or supplies, and only this supposed Legion deserter.

"Look, I understand that all women get upset." Julius said, groaning more as he unbaled himself. "And you might be able to surprise a couple of Legionaries and run away, but how are you going to build a fire or find food without a man to take care of you out here?"

"Without a _man_ to take care of me?" She asked, starting to laugh. "I've been a Mojave Express Courier since I was _fifteen_ , you jackass. I'm the only one who has ever seen the inside of the Sierra Madre Casino and lived to tell about it, so we'll see who needs a man to take care of them."

With that, the Courier walked away, following the trucks tracks through the snow, while Julius followed after her eventually… after struggling his way to his feet.


	5. Chapter 5 The Crater

**Chapter Five: The Crater**

"Come on, Tonya, untie me." The Legionary said, trudging through the snow behind her. "What if a _Gecko_ shows up, or a _Deathclaw_? How am I supposed to protect you if my hands are all tied like this?"

"Oh, right, like _you_ could take a Deathclaw." The Courier scoffed, trying not to slide back down the unusually steep hill. "Tell you what, Julius, if a Deathclaw _does_ come, I'll gladly let you fight it, so _I_ can get away."

A few more hours after being left behind by Junior and the NCR Troopers, the winds picked up and the temperature dropped, all while storm clouds gathered in the sky. Next thing they knew, a snowstorm was swirling around them while thunder and lightning split the sky, making it almost impossible to keep following the truck's tire tracks. Thankfully the vehicle had dug so deeply into the slushy snow that was already on the ground, that the trail could still be seen if they took their time.

The tracks led to the base of a steep hill, and went straight up the side, but thanks to the darkness of the storm, Tonya could only see a little ways in front of herself, so there was no way of knowing how high up this steep and rocky hill was… or for that matter, how the truck had managed to keep going upward, considering all of the difficulty that she was having just trying to climb up on foot.

Winds and snow just getting worse and worse during the climb, the Courier was starting to think that maybe they were following the wrong tracks, or being tricked somehow… until the storm just seemed to magically disappear as soon a she climbed up onto the top of this mountain more than a hill. Nope, not being tricked, the truck was up there just a short distance from the edge, but no one was inside or on the back when she reached it.

"Hey, is that the truck?" The Legionary asked, trying to catch his breath. "Where is everyone?"

"How in the _hell_ did you get up here without your arms?" Tonya asked in partial disbelief. "Yeah, it's the truck, but there's no sign of… _whoa_."

No more winds or blowing snow now, as if they had stepped into the eye of a hurricane, which allowed them to see the area on top of the mountain, as well as what was beyond. Honestly, there was no mountain, well… it might have once been a mountain, but all that was left was a gigantic crater with the very perimeter of the mountainside acting as a kind of shield wall. At first the place looked like the remains of a nuclear explosion like from when the bombs fell, but as her eyes adjusted to the light levels, she saw that there were _lights_ among the reflecting snow… different colored lights.

Some distant sounds could be heard as well, like muffled factory furnaces and pre-war engines, all while continuous puffs of smoke were being generated from the stacks of some kind of facilities. Was this place some kind of settlement, then? A city like New Reno, but hidden away from all of the dangers of the Mojave Wasteland? If so, then maybe this was exactly the place that she had been looking for, and… hey, maybe Tonya wouldn't even need to take Courier jobs any more if the community welcomed newcomers.

"Julius, are you _seeing_ this?" She asked, pointing down to the landscape far below. "Look down there, do you see the blue lights over there, and… the _red_ lights over there? I'm not sure, but it looks like buildings and pathways all over the bottom."

"I see some tracks that go down a little bit." The Legionary replied, trying to point with his head. "Looks like those girls and your friend tried to get down into the crater, but their tracks just stop right down there. Damn it, Tonya, will you _please_ untie me?"

Mostly because she was tired of his whining, but also because she had no idea what to expect once they started to investigate the Troopers' disappearance, the Courier went around behind Julius' back, and untied his wrists. He had been right, Layla really _did_ know how to tie a knot, since she had trouble getting it undone, or even started at first. Clearly the Lieutenant didn't want her prisoner getting free, making it strange that she hadn't stopped the truck after he bailed out, but these were questions that could be answered when they were found.

"You know, we could just take the truck and leave." He suggested. "After all, they _did_ leave us in the middle of nowhere to die… imagine, what kind of monster leaves a _girl_ all alone and scared in the middle of nowhere, when it's _dark_ … you would have been _terrified_ if I wasn't there with you."

"God damn it, I am _not_ afraid of the dark." Tonya snapped, turning back toward him. "Women are not _cowards_ , we are not _weak and feeble_ , we don't have _tiny brains_ , we don't have _small, hollow bones_ , or any of that other misogynistic _bullshit_ that the Legion fed you all these years. Now let's go and find those Troopers so that we can get out of here before it gets even _colder_."

The Courier ignored his next comments about her probably being descended from ancient _Arizonians_ , just like Aurelius had commented, and instead focused on starting down into the crater while Julius made another comment about how attractive she was when she was angry, or something like that. Getting down to where the tracks from Junior and the others ended wasn't so hard, but once they were at the spot, there was no more evidence of where the four of them had gone off to. No tracks, no dropped equipment, no nothing as if they had just _winked_ out of existence.

"Tonya, wait a second." The Legionary said, grabbing her arm. "Do you feel that?"

She was about to pull her arm back, and ask what he was talking about, when Tonya _did_ feel something; a kind of tremor, like a sudden vibration that was passing throughout the ground, and getting stronger by the second. Suddenly there was a red light coming from a few meters distance off to the side, coming from glowing rings that were set in the middle and on top of a large metal tower that neither of them had noticed before.

The tower was huge, more like the size of a pre-war electrical tower but shaped into a much more modern fashion… and the rumbling in the ground became still more intense, while the red rings around the structure became even brighter. Suddenly all of the stored up energy was discharged into a wall of crackling energy that washed over the two of them, making the Courier's head spin while her whole body went numb.

It felt like come slowed down as every sound vanished from the surrounding area, and all was consumed by the red light… but instead of falling down, Tonya felt like she was flying; _whisked_ away to somewhere else while her senses were quickly being overwhelmed by the light until there was nothing. There was no sound… no light… no sensations at all… just the soft playing of some instrumental pre-war music… and the distant sound of… surgical instruments? It felt like she was dreaming; unable to move, feel, or speak while something distorted and barely real was happening around her… something that also became lost as she sunk into the darkness that followed.

 **Greetings from Big MT**

 _In the years before the Great War, Big Mountain had been home to the greatest minds of the twenty first century. Scientists of vision were drawn to the facility to tackle the greatest technological challenges of the era, seeking to create a new world, fueled by technology, for the benefit of all mankind. Sonic emitters, space age alloys, DNA hybridization, force field particle research, Auto-Doc advances in cranial, cardiac, and trauma surgery… the hopes and dreams of a century became realities in the electronic forges of Big Mountain._

 _The nucleus of this research was the Dome, a huge, stone facility that held the labs of every science known to man; it was a think tank where no problem could not be solved, where no question could not be answered. The Great War brought even more energy to Big Mountain and its scientists; although sheltered from the frontlines, the scientists waged their own war, fighting their battles on the atomic level. Equations and calculations marched endlessly across chalkboards and computer terminals toward one solution: Winning the war._

 _For years the minds and computers of Big Mountain were a blaze of trajectories, weapon schematics, and nuclear theories, but the problems began to outpace the solutions… first geometrically… then exponentially. As the war escalated, so did the questions, but on the night of October twenty third, two thousand seventy seven, the scientists received a nuclear answer that put all their questions to rest._

 _In the aftermath, Big Mountains' silent experiments went to sleep; their creators slowly dying in the new world that had been left behind. And the great stone in the middle of the Big Empty lay untouched; filled with countless technological wonders. Wonders that, in the end… had been answers to the wrong question._


	6. Chapter 6 Dr Orderly MD PhD DDS

**Greetings from Big MT**

 **Chapter Six: Dr. Orderly MD. PhD. DDS.**

Eventually the sensory-depriving darkness that Tonya had just been sort of floating through faded away, allowing her to begin opening her eyes. Her hearing was the first sense to completely recover, though, bringing with it a humming of machinery and control panels, followed by distorted blur when her eyes finally opened enough to let light in. What had happened with that tower she had seen on top of the crater? Had it all been a dream? Where was she… where were the others?

Now a sensation of cold was developing across her back, as well as an uncomfortable hardness like when someone lays on a table for too long, but… oh… now there was pain. The Courier had attempted to sit up after determining that she was in fact, laying down on some kind of really cold, uncomfortable table, but something stopped her. She was unable to lift her wrists, ankles, or even her torso, as if someone was holding her down… no, not a person, since Tonya was alone… she was in a set of _restraints_.

Where was she? Why was she tied down to some kind of table? Where was everyone? Her mind was starting to panic, pulling at her bonds, but making no progress, partially because even the slightest strain sent an intense sensation of burning, throbbing pain into her back, her chest, and her head… mostly her head. Tonya's vision was clearing now, and the first thing she saw was an Auto-Doc like the ones at the Sierra Madre Clinic a short distance away, and then the monitoring equipment that was attached to her.

Her clothes were gone as well, replaced by a kind of flimsy gown that didn't seem to have a complete backside, which explained why she felt so cold against the metal examination table that she was lying on. There was lots of other medical-looking equipment in this place as well; more tables, monitoring equipment, and a strange, sterile white colored version of a Mr. Handy robot that was now floating down the stairs from the second level… and coming right toward her.

" _Ah, good morning, patient_." The machine said with an oddly pleasant tone. " _Welcome to the Y-17 Medical Facility; I'm Dr. Orderly, MD, PhD, DDS, and I have been given the pleasure of being assigned as your Primary Care Physician… now that the laminectomy, cardiectomy, and craniectomy performed by Dr. Klein have been completed._ "

The Courier didn't understand the larger words that the machine was using, since honestly she was more focused on what it planned to do with all of the surgical attachments on its multiple appendages, but instead of trying to hurt her, Dr. Orderly simply continued on to say that everything this Dr. Klein did had been a complete success. The hovering machine kept its three eyes focused on her as it floated around to the other side of the table, plugging itself into one of the monitors in a similar way to a real doctor sitting on a chair.

" _Now, it is very important that you lie still, and remain calm_." Dr. Orderly said as the monitor began to transcribe its words. " _It will take your body a while to fully heal from surgery even with the use of the Auto-Doc, so for now I will distract you with the filling out of your medical history… I am excited, though, since you are my first coherent patient in over two hundred years_."

If a Human or a Ghoul had said that to her, she might have been concerned, but this machine was clearly pre-war, and this facility was remarkably well preserved… even more so than the Sierra Madre had been. That, and the pain from movement helped Tonya to stay calm as well. So far she hadn't been attacked, and the restraints holding her down were not about to budge, so she decided that the smart thing to do at this point was to play along.

"My name is Tonya Greene." The Courier responded when it began asking questions. "I was born in New Reno… I'm twenty six years old… I'm a Courier with the Mojave Express, and a Lounge Singer… no, I'm not married or in a relationship… I had surgery last year to change my voice to match Vera Keyes… no, I want to keep it… I'm addicted to Med-X, but I've been using Fixer to help me get off it."

" _Your overindulgence in chems is nothing to be ashamed of, Ms. Greene_." Dr. Orderly replied as one of its appendages changed to holding a syringe filled with blue liquid. " _The initial scan of your body revealed evidence of repeated forced sexual trauma, and many young women turn to Med-X or other tranquilizers as a way to cope. Good news, as your Physician, I can prescribe a cleansing dose of Addictol; now hold still… you may experience some slight irritation_."

Before Tonya could protest, the machine jammed the syringe into the side of her neck, and she cried out as it started to feel like fire was spreading through her veins a moment later. Now sweating like she hadn't done since her time at the Sierra Madre, her hair became matted down, and before long her flimsy gown was soaked… but then it was gone. The heat simply vanished as her temperature went back down, and the first thing the Courier noticed was that her hands were no longer shaking.

" _Oh, you have no idea how pleased I am with you as a patient, Ms. Greene_." The machine said, one of its appendages roughly shoving a stale lollypop into her mouth. " _You're the first patient who can talk to me, let alone answer questions after having their organs removed by Dr. Klein_."

"Wait a minute, _what_?!" The Courier exclaimed, trying and failing to sit up again. "You removed my organs?! Why?! Which organs?!"

Replying by simply advising her to calm down, Dr. Orderly rotated a little inside the monitor's socket, changing the image on the screen so that it showed a series of x-rays. Now, Tonya was no doctor, but she could see that something mechanical had been inserted into her body where her spine, heart, and brain should have been, the thought of which made the Courier start to feel nauseous while the machine praised the mysterious Dr. Klein for _finally getting the procedure right_ after all this time.

" _Anxiety is common in patients, but you should be pleased, Ms. Greene_." The machine continued. " _You are the very first success case for such procedures, whereas all of the other candidates ended up like the ones over there_."

At first Tonya was unsure what the machine was talking about, but then with another adjustment of its rounded body, the lights came on beyond an open set of double doors that she hadn't noticed before. Inside was a set of large cages, like the holding cells of pre-war police stations that she had seen during her travels, and inside of each one were several people… people who were behaving very oddly.

All of them were wearing the same kind of flimsy gown that she had been given, but some of them mumbled incoherently while pacing the cells, while others got into violent altercations or simply bashed their own heads into the bars. It seemed that a mix of male and female patients had been placed inside as well, meaning that some of them were engaging in forced sexual activity while the victims flailed and snarled like an animal… especially when the attackers didn't seem to care about the victim's gender.

" _Well, we seem to be just about finished here_." Dr. Orderly said as the restraints suddenly unlocked, allowing her to sit up. " _If there are no further questions, I want to see you in two weeks to see how the implants are adjusting, and you can pick up your belongings from the locker on your way out_."

"Actually, I _did_ have some questions." The Courier replied, groaning a bit from soreness in her back when swinging her legs over the side of the table. "Where can I find this Dr. Klein? I wanted to talk to him about my, uh… _surgery_. Also… what is this place, and how did I get here?"

This time the hovering machine appeared to have been surprised by her questions, mostly about where she was, answering that she was at _Big Mountain_ , the most highly advanced center of scientific research and study in the whole of _America_. Tonya had heard that word before, usually finding it associated with the old flag that mostly hung inside of old Vaults and newly discovered pre-war facilities, but Big Mountain was something new entirely. According to Dr. Orderly, she had been incapacitated by the facility's _Radar Fence_ , and brought to Y-17 as part of standard procedure.

"But there were others with me." Tonya insisted, hoping that the other survivors of New Reno weren't in those cages. "Two women and three men… did they come through here?"

" _So sorry, Ms. Green, but you are my only recently arrived patient_." The machine answered. " _Dr. Klein is the Head of Operations for all of Big Mountain, so perhaps he can be of more help if you go and see him. You can find him in The Dome, the largest building on site, oh, you can't miss it… have another lollypop for being such a good girl during your examination_."

The Courier tried to protest, but found another stale lollypop being shoved into her mouth so hard that she gagged a little, and then Dr. Orderly floated away to resume… whatever else it was that he did in the facility. Spitting out the lollypop just like she had done with the last one, Tonya decided to get out of this place as soon as possible, especially after hearing more screams from the patient cells. Rushing over to the lockers that the machine had described, she found the first one empty… as well as all of the others until finding her own clothes in the last one.

"Guess I really _am_ the only recent patient." She said to herself, taking off the flimsy gown, and getting dressed. "I hope they're all okay… even Layla."

With only a single door in sight after fully clothed again, the Courier pushed it open to feel a rush of cold air as some snow blew into her face. Before her was the technological landscape that she had seen from on top of the crater, but now it was even more awe-inspiring with its pre-war factories churning out smoke, walkways clearly marked with blue lighting, and the beaming sunlight of a new day making the massive stone structure at the center seem to almost glow.

As impressive as the whole of Big Mountain was, the rock wall that surrounded the crater was even more imposing, especially if this Radar Fence that Dr. Orderly mentioned really did circle the whole perimeter. It seemed that the only way to discover what had happened to her, find the other survivors, and get out of this place was to go to The Dome and meet this Dr. Klein person, so Tonya stepped away from Y-17, and started trudging through the snow toward what she hoped was the main entrance.


	7. Chapter 7 The Dome

**Greetings from Big MT**

 **Chapter Seven: The Dome**

After trudging her way through the falling snow, across the clearly marked pathways of the crater of Big Mountain, Tonya was relieved when she finally found the main, and only entrance to the Dome. The temperature had fallen even more outside, so it was nice to get a break from the blowing wind, but after passing through the unlocked metal door, the Courier realized that it was just as cold inside the building as it was outside.

No wind, though, that was a blessing, she thought as she traveled down the corridor in front of her, but this place seemed… dead. There were doors on both sides of the hallway, leading to offices and laboratories that hadn't been used in a really long time, based on the layer of dust that had been built up on, well… everything, so much that she was leaving footprints as she moved back and forth. The next thing she discovered was a drinking fountain and a set of restrooms, both of which she needed, but aside from the buildup of dust… everything worked perfectly.

The toilets flushed without shooting dirty water all over the place, and when Tonya risked taking a drink from the fountain, regardless of radiation, she discovered that there was no aftertaste at all. Not only did the flowing water from the dispenser taste like that expensive _purified_ stuff that some of the bars sold in New Reno, but it was cold, too. Cold like having been held under river water or left inside of a working refrigerator, and some of the pain in her head started to clear after drinking her fill.

Eventually the corridor ended at a set of double doors, and the Courier easily pushed them open to reveal a huge, rounded room that had two levels; the base floor that was lined with strange sorts of monitoring equipment and stations, while a walkway on top of a set of metal staircases housed more of the same, as well as more doors to what was maybe storage rooms. Data flowed across the monitoring screens faster than Tonya could read it, and there was another, much bigger screen that had an image in blue wire-frame… possibly a map of the crater, or…

" _No, 8, I don't care 'what' the others wanted_." A synthesized voice loudly spoke, making her look for the source. " _How are we supposed to cower from Mobius like frightened schoolgirls, if everyone is off at their labs having 'fun'_?"

It wasn't until a second sound answered this inquiry that the Courier saw where it was coming from, and what she saw simply… astounded her. The second voice was nothing but a strange jumbling of static and electronic beeps, but somehow, back behind the noise, she could also hear the words that it was saying: Something about _not being a babysitter_ , and… _go screw yourself_ … but it was the source of both these voices that was truly unique.

The voices came from a pair of… maybe robots… but they were unlike anything that Tonya had ever seen; a large hovering metal torso with a transparent dome on top, filled with glowing colored liquid, and holding a… human brain? Each of the machines had three appendages, two of which ended at a kind of television monitor that displayed a huge eyeball that filled the display… and the last one was a bigger monitor that hung below the eyes, displaying a mouth that moved along with the speech.

"Um… excuse me?" She said, walking toward them. "Uh… hi, I'm looking for…

Her words were interrupted as the robot that had been speaking suddenly rotated toward her, letting out a high pitch scream as it and the other one hovered backwards as if frightened. Then they took off, the scrambled one leading the way as they floated around to the staircase, up onto the second level, and still screaming as the scrambled one flew through an open doorway… slamming it in the face of its partner.

" _No, 8, what are you doing_?!" It loudly demanded, ramming itself pathetically into the closed door. " _I'm still out here; don't leave me alone with this… this Lobotomite! What if it spills its fluids all over the floor… or on 'me'?! Help! 8, open the door! That's 'my' panic room! Heeeelllllllp_!"

"I'm um… I'm not here to hurt you… whatever you are." Tonya said, still not sure what she was seeing. "I didn't mean to frighten you, but I'm looking for Dr. Klein."

The hovering robot had been just about to start screaming again, when it stopped, very slowly turning back to face her with its eye-monitors, and then even slower still floating back down the stairs onto the first level of the room. Instead of coming right toward her, the machine did a kind of wide circle, yelping with fright and then clearing its throat after bumping into a monitoring station. Once this circle around her was complete, the hovering robot kept its distance while the digital eyes moved all over her.

" _Lobotomite… did you… speak_?" It asked, looking just as confused as she was. " _Perhaps my brilliance has finally crossed over into insanity, but… if you can understand me… raise one of your appendages… the higher ones with all the… all the… five hand, uh… penises on the end_."

This machine's words confused her, as did everything it was doing, but when it said hand _penises_ , did it mean her _fingers_? Did the machine want to test her ability to understand by raising her hand? It was a simple enough thing to do, so she raised her arm up into the air, causing the machine to scream again as if it couldn't believe what it was seeing. If that was the case, then it wasn't the only one, because this was easily the _strangest_ thing that the Courier had ever seen in her life.

" _8… Dr. 8, get out here at once! A miracle of science has happened_!" The machine yelled so loudly that there was high-pitch feedback. " _I, Dr. Klein, Chief Administrator of Big Mountain, have achieved the impossible! A walking, talking, thinking, Lobotomite_!"

"Wait a minute." Tonya said as the other machine came out of the panic room. " _You're_ Dr. Klein? How is that even possible… what are you?"

Once again her head was hurt by the loud static and electronic beeps coming from the other machine, the one Dr. Klein called _Dr. 8_ , as it spoke, but through the pain she could hear its words… something about _such abominations need to be contained_ … and then… _this is what we get for playing God_. The Courier tried to get their attention again, but was talked over when Klein suggested that perhaps through surgery he had transferred a sliver of his awareness to the _Lobotomite_ … and of course they were talking about _her_ , since she was the only one around who even had organs to remove.

" _Welcome to the world of awareness, Lobotomite_." Dr. Klein said slowly, as if speaking to a child. " _Thanks to my genius and all powerful… genius… you have become a sentient being. Next we'll teach you to do tricks, by prodding you with electric shocks when you fail, and rewarding you with…_

"Look, just stop, all right?" Tonya asked, becoming a little irritated herself. "Dr. Orderly told me that you removed my brain, and that you might know where my friends are, so… any chance of helping me solve all of these problems at once?"

Klein and 8 just sort of looked at each other, before 8 suggested in his scrambled speech that _their abomination might be an erratic female_ , but then everything was interrupted when a low-pitch humming sound filled the room, making all of the monitoring machines scramble for a second, and the rom itself shake, before a new screen activated… one that spanned the length of one side of the big open room.

At first the image was only static, but then it cleared enough to show another of those hovering robots, but this one was kind of run down. One of its eye-monitors was smashed, leaving it darkened and useless, while the others were filthy, and there was what looked like green algae starting to grow in the tank that housed its brain. More confusion was the only thing that the Courier felt upon seeing this, but Klein and 8 were terrified. Their digital eyes were wide with fright at seeing this image, and their digital mouths hung open while their entire chassis shook, causing them to back up all the way into the wall, where they huddled together in horror.

" _Well, well, well… well, well… well_." The image said in a threatening, yet unsure sounding voice. " _If it isn't my old 'friends'… the Think Tank… it is I, Dr. Mobius, transmitting this hate-filled message to you from my dome shaped… dome in the Forbidden Zone. Yes, the 'Forbidden Zone'… a zone that it forbidden… to 'you'_!"

This insane ranting continued, something about a _Robo-Scorpion_ , and then just telling them to cower in fear from _all that is Mobius_ … followed by a polite goodbye, and a promise to call again soon. With that the image vanished as the monitor went dark, and while Tonya wasn't exactly scared by this whole dramatic scene, Klein and 8 just kept screaming. They had fallen onto the floor, with tears in their digital eyes, and more bubbles than usual moving around in their brain cases.

"Why?!" Dr. Klein screamed as he and 8 slowly resumed hovering. "Why does that madman taunt us so?!"

8 started to do another static and beep filled explanation that forced the Courier to cover her ears, suggesting that maybe _their old enemy had heard about the new abomination_. It didn't take a floating brain to realize that they were talking about _her_ again, but then the whole tone of the conversation changed when 8 suggested that _perhaps Mobius was afraid what they had created_.

" _Yes, 8, yes_!" Klein yelled excitedly, floating up much closer to Tonya than before. " _Hear me, Lobotomite… Mobius bad… Think Tank good… you destroy Mobius, or we put you in cage with…_

"Okay, okay, just calm down for a second." She interrupted. "I don't know what's going on here with you two and Mobius, or whatever; I just want to find my friends, and get my brain back, all right? Is that possible?"

Again the two hovering machines looked at each other, before 8 said, again making the Courier cover her ears, that _this situation was one for the entire Think Tank to resolve_. 8 also said something about _Lobotomites not having friends_ , and that they only killed or injected bodily fluids into each other. As hard as the overlapping, painful conversation was to figure out, it was clear that these two didn't know anything about where the other survivors from New Reno had gone, but then Klein flew back up to her so that his mouth screen was right in her face.

" _Go, Lobotomite, go and gather the other members of the Think Tank_!" He shouted, following her when she backed up. " _Only when the five greatest minds of… we… are gathered, can we force you to destroy Mobius, and… and whatever it was you said you wanted. Now go! Find them in their labs, and bring them here_!"


	8. Chapter 8 Trauma Override

**Greetings from Big MT**

 **Chapter Eight: Trauma Override**

Once again finding herself trudging through the ankle-high snow that covered the crater, Tonya realized as she walked away from the Dome, that she had been given no actual instructions on how to find the other members of the Think Tank, as Klein and Mobius had both referred to them. Looking around in all directions at the clearly marked walkways that led to dozens of different small buildings that the Courier could see in the distance, she was about to simply choose a path at random, but was stopped when something caught her eye.

There was something moving… a figure, most likely a person by the way it moved, with their red clothes easily visible against the white snow and gray buildings. This figure was also carrying something in its hands, but they were a good distance away, so it was hard for her to be sure what it was. The red-clad person also didn't seem to be aware of her, since they just continued walking toward another of the buildings.

"Hey!" She called out, waving her arms while walking toward them. "Hey you, over here! Wait, I need to talk to you!"

Hoping that this person was someone who knew where to find the other members of the think tank, or at least narrow down the search, she kept walking when the figure stopped. After all, there was also a chance that they knew where to find the people Tonya had traveled there with as well; Junior, Layla, Gleeson, Julius, and Fretwell. However, when the red figure suddenly turned toward her, the Courier found herself stopping in her tracks.

Something felt wrong with the way this person just stood staring at her, but she was still too far away to get the details on what they looked like, aside from being able to tell that they were wearing some kind of… space suit? Yes, that was it, whoever this red figure was, they were wearing an outfit straight out of a pre-war _Captain Cosmos_ comic book, complete with overly contrasting rubber at the joints, and some kind of transparent bowl over their head, which could only be seen because of the snow falling onto it.

This person must also not have seen the sun very often, because their shaved head was so pale… and they must have been wearing welding goggles or something, because from where Tonya was standing, the red figure's eyes looked like big black circles. However, the time for studying this person was soon over, when they raised the object in their hands… a rifle of some kind, and shot a green sphere of plasma at her.

It missed, flying past the Courier's arm, and slamming into one of the large pipes that stuck out of the ground in places as they ran throughout the crater, causing a _hiss_ as some of the compressed steam inside was released into the air. The red figure fired again, walking toward her while the plasma shot streaked toward their target, and forcing Tonya to make a run for it. With plasma shots melting snow and burning stone structures all around her, she was forced to dive toward one of the pipes, using the snow in order to slide under it.

Still, the red figure kept shooting at her, with the Courier having to stay crouched down while making her escape, and ducking into the first small building that she came to. The door slid open as she approached, closing again immediately after she passed through, but there was no visible way to lock it… meaning that it was only a matter of time before the red figure came in as well. Maybe there was somewhere that she could hide, Tonya thought as she looked around, but aside from some lockers that were against the wall, the only place to go was down a long metal staircase into what looked like a larger, open chamber.

"Crap." She whispered to herself. "Come on, think, Tonya, _think_."

Not wanting to be trapped down there if there wasn't another way out, the Courier instead chose to pull open one of the lockers, and squeeze herself inside. Even with as slender as her frame was, Tonya still had difficulty getting inside, and she noticed that the words _X-12 RESEARCH CENTER_ was stenciled onto the wall across from her, just before she started to pull the locker door closed. But she hadn't gotten it quite shut, when the facility door slid open, and she could see part of the red figure's suit as it walked in.

It didn't say anything, nor did it make any odd sounds like the green eyed monster she had met at the Sierra Madre had done; just keeping its rifle aimed in front of itself while walking toward the stairs with hesitant, kind of jerky movements like a robot that had not been programmed properly. Well, whatever its problem was, the red figure was now standing at the top of the long staircase, so the Courier tried to be as quiet as possible while pushing the locker door back open and getting out.

Thankfully, the red figure didn't notice her as she crept up from behind, and she was just about to give it a good shove, when it suddenly turned around to face her. As much as she wanted to push it down the stairs, Tonya found herself not only freezing up, but also letting out a scream like a frightened twelve year old when she finally got a good look at her attacker. Its face wasn't pale, shaved, or wearing goggles… it was a _skull_... a bleached white _human_ skull that grinned at her as its suit, which said _Y-17 Trauma Override Harness_ on the chest, aimed the rifle at her.

 _Fwoosh_! The burning green plasma stung the Courier's cheek as if flew past her, blasting the door off of the locker she had been previously hiding in, but as badly as it hurt, the near miss had broken Tonya out of her paralysis. This red monster seemed to take a moment before each new movement, so there was a brief opportunity to rush forward and shove it backwards as hard as she could. During its previous quick turn to face her, part of the suit's feet were hanging over the edge of the stairs, allowing her to send it rolling and spinning as it crashed down the stairs, landing in a heap a short distance from the bottom.

All right, it was time to leave, she thought while turning toward the door… but then she realized that the red figure's Plasma Rifle had fallen from its grip on the way down, now sitting on the floor of the lower level a good distance from where the suit was lying. She knew it was a stupid move to try and get it, especially since after dealing with that green eyed abomination at the Sierra Madre, she expected the red figure to get up again at any moment… but on the other hand, what if there were _more_ such things out in the crater?

Tonya was unarmed, and would be helpless again the next time something awful attacked her, so the decision was made to head downstairs, and retrieve the rifle. This was not done hastily or without a plan, however, and since the thing had not noticed her until she called out to it like a moron, the Courier walked on her tip-toes, moving as silently as she could down the long metal staircase.

No movement was coming from the red figure for the whole time that she walked down, and after reaching the lower floor, which was mostly empty aside from some disused monitoring equipment along the walls, she took one more look at the motionless figure before going for the rifle. _Click-clack_ , there was some noise when Tonya picked it up from the floor, and as she feared, it was just enough to bring the Trauma Harness back to life.

 _Fwoosh_! Aiming at it and firing as quickly as she could while the thing lunged for her, the plasma shot struck the red figure's suit in the torso, making it stumble backwards before falling down… but then it just started getting back up again. Shooting it one more time, this time in the leg so that it fell on its face, the Courier ran for the stairs, stomping her way up toward the door… and soon hearing the heavy footsteps of her pursuer as it gave chase.

Running until she reached the top, Tonya turned and shot the red figure again, knocking it backwards with a shot to the helmet, but it was able to stop itself from falling down the stairs by catching the guardrail. So she shot the guardrail, the plasma melting right through the thin metal, and putting her pursuer off balance, and the next shot was supposed to make it fall, but again it stopped itself by grabbing the _other_ guardrail.

Now becoming angry and irritated at this things persistence, she shot the second guardrail, but instead of taking another shot at the off balance red figure, she aimed downward and started shooting the mount where the stairs were connected to the entryway. _Fwoosh! Fwoosh! Fwoosh!_ Each shot tore into the sturdier material of the safety mount, but the time it was taking to destroy it gave the red figure the chance to regain its balance. Renewing its pursuit of her, the thing was only a couple steps away when the last part of the mount was destroyed.

One second the stairway was there, and the next second it was gone, crashing down to the far below lower level, and taking the red figure with it… except the figure _didn't_ go with it, instead grabbing onto the edge of the entryway platform with one hand, and starting to pull itself up. That is, until its transparent helmet was just coming up over the edge, and Tonya fired one more shot with the Plasma Rifle, sending the red figure crashing down to the lower floor, where it bounced off the edge of a metal table.

"And _stay_ down there!" The Courier yelled, shooting it one more time for good measure when it started to get up. "Asshole!"

Giving her now trapped pursuer the finger before turning away, Tonya could only hope that there were no other ways out of the facility as she headed out the sliding door, to resume her search for the other members of the Think Tank. However, she still had no way of knowing where they were to be found, so she reverted to her original strategy… simply picking a direction at random, and walking toward whatever was along its path.


	9. Chapter 9 Higgs Village

**Greetings from Big MT**

 **Chapter Nine: Higgs Village**

"What the hell kind of place is this?" Tonya asked, now on the lookout for more dangers as she traveled between buildings. "People getting lobotomized, brains floating around in tanks, and now the ghost of Captain God damn Cosmos…

Honestly, even with everything else happening, the Courier had been fine until dealing with that last one, since she had already seen some pretty horrific things at the Sierra Madre. But even as bad as that green eyed monster had been, seeing that dead skull grinning at her from under the transparent helmet was just too much. She needed to find a way out of this crater, but not without the others who had escaped New Reno with her.

No one deserved to be trapped in Big Mountain, even though those NCR Troopers had been assholes, and she wanted Julius to be punished just for being part of the Legion. In fact, the only one out of the group that she actually liked was Junior, but that was really only because his father had been so good to her. Tonya hadn't exactly been on top of her game after escaping from the Sierra Madre six months before, and Mr. Mordino had given her a job waiting tables until hearing her singing one day in the shower.

Next thing the Courier knew, she was New Reno's Sweetheart, and it had been a good life… until Aurelius of Phoenix came and ruined it. Now, instead of being adored by all, and sleeping inside a room with a working heater, Tonya was freezing her ass off in this place, making her way toward the largest building that she had seen so far, apart from the dome. It looked like a huge, three story warehouse, but with no windows built into the dark metal shell, and a sign near the only door that said _Higgs Village_.

Surprisingly, though, where every other building she had ventured into was just as cold as it was outside, the air inside of Higgs Village was warm. It wasn't super-hot like the Mojave in July, but just kind of comfortable as the door shut behind her, and she found herself walking into a scene from one of those pre-war postcards. The entire warehouse was a single, gigantic room, where yellow lamps on the ceiling gave the illusion of sunlight, and there were houses.

There were six large townhouses in a half circle, each with a small backyard behind it, and all centered around a large fountain like a cul-de-sac, just with no road. Green grass was growing around each house, but kind of tall as if only maintained once in a great while, and each residence was complete with both a pre-war mailbox, and numbers on the homes themselves, ranging from one through six… well actually, two of the numbers had been changed so that two through four, and then zero and eight for some reason.

" _Breaking news_." A voice said from high above. " _Looks like another Lobotomite has wandered stupidly into Higgs Village, and our viewers want to know why. Why, it's because Lobotomites are stupid… S-T-O-O-P-E-D, stupid_."

Looking up, the Courier saw that there was another one of those floating brain robots, but this one was hovering up above the sun lamps, and slowly moving around the whole place as if trying to see something. Turns out, that _something_ was inside one of the houses, revealed when there was a loud crashing sound, followed by the door of home number five almost being knocked off its hinges when someone fell through it. Actually, it was more like they had been tossed, since this person had been stumbling backwards as they went through.

" _And we now return to our main event_." The hovering robot continued while the person fell to the ground. " _This is Dr. O, reporting live from Higgs Village, where the long awaited title fight between… whoever… this guy is… and our undefeated champion, Muggy, is in full swing. I'm no fortune teller, but if I was a betting man, which I am, I'd say that soon our challenger will be dead… D-E-D, dead_."

Trying to move closer so that she could assess the situation without being seen by the figure, Tonya hid around the corner of a nearby house, and gasped when she saw that the _challenger_ Dr. O was talking about was _Julius_ … before not being sure what to think when his opponent followed him outside. It was obviously a machine, but with a single rubber tire that supported the body on two springs, and arms that had human-like hands at the end. The body was kind of blocky, with no actual head, but it did have a TV monitor in the center of a chest, where the display showed a coffee cup with a… face?

Every time Tonya thought this place couldn't confuse her any farther, something completely off the wall would happen, and the strangest part of this _particular_ situation, was that the robot was only about two feet tall. This height difference didn't seem to matter much as it rolled toward Julius, causing the Legionary to take a defensive stance while backing away. There were bruises forming on his face and arms, and the reason for this was discovered when he took a swing at the robot, only to have it lean backwards to avoid it, and come back with its own attack.

Compressing down on its support springs, the little robot that Dr. O had referred to as Muggy suddenly shot upward with a punch that connected with Julius's jaw, having enough force to knock him not only off his feet, but right into the fountain. There was a small splash of water when he landed, but this time the Legionary wasn't as quick to get back up, and as much as Tonya hated the Legion, she couldn't just leave him there to get beaten to death, so she aimed the plasma rifle, and started shooting.

" _What an unexpected twist_." Dr. O commented from above as Muggy avoided the first two shots. " _It seems our Lobotomite has tagged in a surprise partner, but if the fans want a tag-match, then that's what they'll get… only on Pay-Per-View_."

 _Fwoosh! Fwoosh!_ The Courier fired shot after shot at the little robot, but it was so quick the way it could move around on that wheel, that it was able to easily dodge each one… while coming right toward her. Tonya had seen plenty of robots throughout her life; clunky, slow moving Protectrons, hovering variations of the Mr. Handy, and now these floating brain tanks, but this… she had never seen a robot that was as fast and agile as Muggy, when it not only avoided all of her attacks, but also knocked the rifle from her hands with its wheel by doing a kind of backflip.

The plasma weapon had only just left her hands, when Muggy, still in the middle of its backflip, grabbed onto her wrist with a death grip on his its way down. It then landed gracefully on its wheel, before rolling right between her legs at full speed, causing the Courier to do a flip of her own. Landing hard on her back, the little robot still hadn't let go when it started rolling again, and the effort of dragging her along didn't seem to slow it down, even while pulling her over every painful obstacle in Higgs Village.

After being dragged around the central fountain a few times, where Julius was finally starting to climb out, Muggy did a hard turn, making Tonya roll over, before being pulled right into the house where the robot and Julius had originally been. Pulling her through a surprisingly well preserved pre-war living room, and then back into a kitchen that was just as pristine, Muggy swung her around one more time before letting go, causing her to slam into the bottom of the kitchen island in the center of the room.

She had expected it to keep attacking her like it had done with Julius, but instead the little robot seemed to have lost interest in her completely; rolling back out of the house, and pushing the door shut while the Courier was left to pick herself up. Being dragged had taken a lot out of her, so it took effort to grab onto the ledge of the kitchen island, and pull herself up, and seeing her reflection in a very shiny toaster that was sitting in the center. Except for the water that had been left running in the sink, the house was now silent… but hey, there were some knives on the counter, put in one of those set-boards.

It wasn't much, but with the plasma rifle out of reach, those blades were the only weapon around, so she leaned on the island to turn around, when something suddenly wrapped itself around her neck. It was some kind of rubber cord that also looped itself around her wrists when she tried to grab the one on her neck, and it quickly tightened, choking the Courier while also binding her wrists behind her back. Now it pulled, forcing her to turn around and see that the cord had come from… the _toaster_?

" _Well, well, what have we here_?!" The toaster yelled in an overly aggressive voice. " _A tasty treat for my electric heating coil of doom_?!"

In any other situation, Tonya might have laughed at such a ridiculous display of… insanity, but instead she felt scared as the shiny chrome of the appliance's casing became so red-hot that she could feel it a little from where she was standing… and then the cord tightened again. This time pulling her forward so that she was bent over the island, facing the toaster, the Courier screamed when her cheek came up against the heated metal, and then it gave her just enough slack to stop touching it… before two burnt pieces of toast popped up from its slots.

" _Eat my toast, you bitch_!" The appliance yelled, making her scream when it burned her face again. " _Eat it all right now, before I put your doneness setting to… darkest_!"

With her wrists tied behind her back, and unable to wriggle herself free, Tonya didn't seem to have much choice but to eat the burnt toast, especially when the cord around her neck pulled her so that her head was right above the toast slots. The coils were giving off so much heat that it was painful just to be that close, and her whole body was starting to sweat as she opened her mouth to take a bite… only to gag when the cord pulled her downward while the whole slice of bread was crammed in at once.

" _Yes… hot, hard, and in your mouth, just the way you like it, you… whore_!" The toaster continued. " _That's right, eat my toast, and eat all of it, you fucking street-walker_!"

Not willing to even _try_ and figure out how a kitchen appliance was somehow getting off on making her eat toast, and desperately needing to get away from those burning hot heat coils, she tried her best to eat both slices of bread. However, they were so burned and dry, that although Tonya had managed to choke down the first one, she second one made her cough, sending a spray of blackened crumbs all over the appliance.

" _Who the fuck said you could spit it out_?!" The appliance screamed, making her scream again when it pulled her face up against it. " _When I give you toast, you swallow every crumb of it, you stupid, two dollar, truck stop, slut! But don't worry, because I got plenty more where that came from_!"


	10. Chapter 10 Defeating Muggy

**Greetings from Big MT**

 **Chapter Ten: Defeating Muggy**

Eight pieces… eight pieces of burnt, dry toast, crammed down Tonya's throat one after another, with nothing to wash it down, and the constant threat of being burned again if she didn't eat every single crumb. The toaster continued to degrade her, using names and insults that would have made a New Reno pimp blush, all while keeping the cord around her wrists and neck as tight as possible without stopping her from being able to keep eating.

" _Ahhh, yeah… you love my toast, don't you, bitch_?!" The appliance asked after she managed to choke down the last bite. " _You better say 'yeah, toast daddy, I love what you give me' or things are gonna get real hot in here, God damn it_!"

"All right, all right, okay!" The Courier yelled when she felt the cord start to pull her down. "Yeah, toast daddy, I love what you give me… just let me go."

Instead of releasing her right away, the cord pulled her down so that her cheek was burned against the toaster's red hot chrome, making her scream again for even longer than before. When the appliance finally did release her, the cord unwrapped itself from her wrists and neck so fast that the end struck her across the face like a whip, leaving a deep cut across Tonya's other cheek while she fell to the floor.

" _Yeah, I bet you love it, you fucking floozy_!" The toaster said as its chrome started to cool down. " _You can take toast all day, huh?! You make me sick, you know that?! Now get out of my sight, you cheap hooker… I bet your daddy's real proud of you right now!_ "

Only half listening to what the appliance was saying, mostly because her attention was divided between the pain from the burns and that last hit, as well as the nausea building up in her stomach, the Courier was more than prepared to simply run out of the house… but then she heard something. Could it be… _snoring_? Was the toaster _really_ snoring? Unsure of how a kitchen appliance was even capable of all these things, Tonya was still getting up to leave, when she saw that the water was still running in the sink from when she first arrived.

Yes, it was tempting to simply leave in case the appliance woke up, but after the pure… _humiliation_ that the toaster had subjected her to, there was only one answer. Moving quietly and slowly, the Courier gently picked up the toaster, since it was no longer hot, and then tossed it into the sink. The appliance sounded confused when the water first started pouring down onto it, but then it got inside the heater coils, and sparks flew as it started screaming even louder than she had been while being burned.

" _You bitch, what have you done_?!" The toaster screamed, the voice becoming distorted. " _You'll be sorry for this, I promise you… one day when you want more toast… but can't toast it_!"

With that, the evil appliance fell silent, and the sparks stopped as well, leaving only water running down onto it. As for Tonya, she leaned over the other side of the double-sink, and painfully vomited up most of the toast that she had been forced to eat, with what remained of it sitting on her stomach like a brick. The danger wasn't over though, there was still that Muggy robot outside, and… she had come into the kitchen for a knife after losing her plasma rifle.

" _Things aren't looking too good for our challenger_." She heard Dr. O's voice commenting as she grabbed a long kitchen knife. " _Although this one is more coordinated than the usual knuckle-draggers who wander in here, he's just no match for Muggy, and will soon taste bitter defeat, D-E-F-I-C-A-T-E, defeat_."

When the Courier got to the door of the house, she saw out the window that Julius was being dragged all around Higgs Village by the little robot, but every so often it would roll right by where she was hiding, so Tonya's next move would have to be perfectly timed, or else both of them were in real trouble. So she waited… and waited… and waited for the next time that Muggy rolled around, and then the Courier shoved the door open as she leapt toward the little robot with her knife stabbing down.

Intending to hit a joint that would cripple one of its arms or maybe that screen in the center of its chassis, Tonya's aim was off enough to make her miss her target… but not too much for her to be able to stab Muggy's tire instead. Her knife pierced the thick rubber, resulting in a loud popping noise, and the spinning motion of the tire caused the Courier to be sent rolling across the grass… while the little robot slowed down to a crawl.

" _This just in; Muggy's been caught with a flat… how about that_?" Dr. O continued, still hovering far above. " _The outcome of this match is now anyone's guess, only on Pay-Per View_."

Muggy was now barely moving at all, having to let go of Julius in order to try and keep its bulky frame balanced on the two springs… but this was not going to be a problem for long. While the little robot was struggling to move, and Dr. O was living out some kind of sports fantasy, Julius had crawled over to where the plasma rifle had fallen. Sitting up and taking aim, the Legionary pulled the trigger, making s small trail of black smoke come from Muggy's chassis upon being struck.

 _Fwoosh_! _Fwoosh_! Shot after shot of glowing green plasma slammed into the little robot, melting off one of its arms, and turning its face screen to static as more black smoke came out. With one more well placed shot, Muggy's reign of terror was over; most of the little robot having melted into a pile of green goo, while the rest was nothing but a smoking pile of scattered gears and rubber.

" _Cut! No, no, no, this is all wrong_." The brain tank scolded as it floated down to them. " _Muggy is supposed to rip the Lobotomites to shreds, didn't you read the script? All right, just get out of here, and I'll have to…_

Now that Dr. O had floated down to their level, his words were stopped when Tonya suddenly balled up her fist, and punched him in one of the eye monitors, making it lose vertical hold for a moment. The brank tank then gasped with fright as she grabbed it by one of the appendages, before dragging the whole thing back over to one of the houses, where she pinned it up against the wall.

"I just got sodomised by a _fucking toaster_!" She screamed, ignoring the new pain in her hand. "Now… Dr. Klein wants all of you to go see him in the Think Tank, so you're gonna forget about whatever… _stupidity_ you had planned here, and you're gonna go to the Dome right the hell _now_!"

Swinging the floating brain tank around so that it was facing the door, and then kicking it so that it would start moving, the Courier was starting to feel a little bit better when Dr. O screamed in fright while heading to the door at what she guessed was his best possible speed. All right, well… she had found one of the three missing members of the Think Tank, and Julius as well, so that was something… now she just needed to get her plasma rifle back.

"Oh, no, I don't think so." The Legionary said, holding it back when she asked for it. "Tonya, I don't know where you got this, but it's dangerous; definitely not something a woman should be playing with… you could hurt yourself."

"This _woman_ just saved you from that Muggy thing." She replied, rapidly getting fed up with his chauvinistic views. "I had to fight off the ghost of Captain Cosmos to get that weapon, so just… give it here."

Again Julius refused, saying that it was bad enough she was an _Arizonian_ who could use blades, and that he was learning to… _deal with that_ … but that he had to draw the line at letting her use any kind of a firearm. Claiming that Muggy had simply caught him off guard, the Legionary explained that it was his job as a man to protect her, and that she would only hurt herself or others with the rifle… so it probably came as a shock to him when she grabbed the weapon, and shoved him backwards while hooking her foot behind his leg.

"I'm sorry, I didn't quite get that last part." Tonya said, aiming the rifle at him after he fell on his back. "And I've been handling _firearms_ since I was nine, so if I hurt something with it, it'll be _intentional_."

The Courier expected him to say something back to this, most likely some other sexist comment, but instead he just laid there on the ground, looking up at her with a mixture of surprise, confusion, and… aw crap, _desire_. This was the same look that Aurelius of Phoenix had gotten in his eyes when she actually agreed to fight him back in New Reno, so what was the cause? Was a strong woman really so shocking to Legionaries that they immediately fell in love? And if so, then why were they always crucifying NCR women instead of trying to marry them?

"Julius, we're trapped here." She said, changing the subject. "That radar fence is keeping us inside the crater, and we need to find the rest of the Think Tank in order to shut it down… and also the others who were with us. So how about we call a truce for now?"

Tonya offered her hand to help him up, and surprisingly Julius took it, both of them groaning from both the effort and the injuries they had sustained form the fight with Muggy and that damn toaster thing. One thing was for sure, she was never going to eat a piece of toast for as long as she lived… and that was when she realized that the Legionary, although standing, had not let go of her hand.

"I'm starting to understand why you didn't break when Aurelius took you in Arizona." He said, still not letting go. "You're strong willed, your heritage explains your skill with a blade, but… how did you learn how to disarm a man like that?"

"Pugilism Illustrated." The Courier answered, pulling her hand away. "I had the whole collector's set, before your people burned my home to the ground. Let's just… get moving."

Why did he have to bring up what happened in Arizona? She wondered while walking toward the exit, and now reliving the time in her life when she had felt the weakest. It made sense that Aurelius had been trying to break her back then, the way he had choked her and beat her, while using her for his pleasure… although some of these memories were cancelled out by the expression on his face when he had gone over the hood of her truck.

Snapped back into reality by the sudden temperature drop when they walked out the door, Tonya realized that although she had found two out of the eight that she was seeking, once again she had no idea where to go from there… and the Big Mountain crater was really big.


	11. Chapter 11 Lobotomite Ambush

**Greetings from Big MT**

 **Chapter Eleven: Lobotomite Ambush**

The wind was blowing again, kicking up small amounts of snow that hadn't quite turned into slush yet, and making it that much harder for Tonya to navigate… not that she had a particular destination in mind. It just would have been nice if the facilities around the crater had some way of lighting up if they were currently in use, because as it stood, the only way to find the other members of the Think Tank or her fellow survivors from New Reno, was to explore each one.

Moving farther away from Higgs Village and its nightmare-inducing appliances, the Courier made sure to keep the Dome in sight while moving from place to place, mostly so that she wouldn't get lost, but also to make sure that she didn't go in a circle and have to search the same buildings multiple times. So far, though, nothing else had attacked her, but as she and Julius entered what looked like a forest of hexagonal concrete pillars, she didn't want to risk letting her guard down like when meeting that red monster.

"Tonya wait… wait a second." Julius said, grabbing her arm to make her stop walking. "Look… I know that you're stubborn, and you want to try and do everything on your own, _somehow_ without a man to take care of you, but do you have even the _slightest_ idea where we're going?"

"Actually, no, I don't." She replied, pulling her arm away. "But I have to find a bunch of floating brains, _and_ rescue the people who stole my vehicle, so we're just gonna do a big circle thing around the crater until we find them. Feel free to split up."

She had hoped that he would get the hint that she wanted him to either take a hike or shut his mouth, but instead the Legionary moved around to block her path. It was like he _forgot_ that she was carrying a plasma rifle, and then… oh… and then he had the _nerve_ to ask her why she was being so hostile toward him. Couldn't _possibly_ have something to do with his people burning down her home, or the fact that his boss had forced her to marry him after a _history_ of beating and raping her, could it?

"This, _right here_ , is why the _Legion_ doesn't let women make decisions." He continued, shaking his head. "Tonya, like it or not, you and I are in this mess _together_ , but instead of working as a team, you're acting like some kind of emotional… _train wreck_."

"The _Legion_ is a bunch of boy-loving, cowards!" Tonya yelled back, getting louder than she probably should have. "You know how your boss got me the first time? Do you? He scared me into it by having some innocent girl nailed to a wooden God damn cross right in front of me! She couldn't have been more than _fifteen_ , Julius, and she died screaming so that I would…

Suddenly the Courier stopped talking as a new sound reached her ears, but when the turned away from the Legionary to take a look around, there was nothing that she could see beyond the forest of hexagonal pillars. The sound had stopped by the time she was able to search for it, and these oddly placed concrete pillars were so big and numerous that _anything_ could have been hiding behind them. Tonya now felt pretty stupid for allowing herself to get all worked up to the point of yelling like a dumbass… but still nothing was moving.

"Tonya, look out!" Julius yelled, shoving her sideways.

The Legionary shoved her so roughly that she fell over, but no sooner had the Courier been moved, when a figure leapt right at where she had been standing. It was a man that jumped out from behind a concrete pillar… a strange man who was just about naked except for what looked like a broken hockey mask, and a faded blue hospital gown that didn't cover much at all. Instead of tackling her, however, the masked man flew at Julius, only to have his arm twisted around as the Legionary bashed his masked head against the pillar.

His mask broken even more from the blow, the masked man fell to the ground while Tonya was getting up, but Julius was unable to finish him off, due to the two other masked men who leapt out at him an instant later. All of these masked men had started yelling what sounded like incoherent gibberish as soon as they came out of hiding, and when the Legionary slugged one of them to knock him backwards, Tonya noticed that all of them had familiar looking scars on the back, chest, and side of the head.

They must have been more of those _Lobotomites_ , like the ones that Dr. Orderly had been keeping inside that cage, and for a moment the thought that she could have been just like them if Dr. Klein hadn't finally succeeded gave her a chill, before raising her plasma rifle and pulling the trigger. _Fwoosh!_ One of the Lobotomites was struck in the chest, throwing him backwards as the plasma melted a good portion of his body, but then three more of them, including some females, grabbed her from behind.

"Get off me, you fucking freaks!" Julius yelled, kicking another one in the stomach. "Don't you touch her!"

Managing to free himself from the two of them for a moment, the Legionary started to help the Courier, only to be leapt upon by three more of the gibbering Lobotomites. Losing his balance, Julius and the three masked people tumbled down the nearby hill, while Tonya had to let go of her plasma rifle in order to keep them from tackling her to the ground. Bringing up her knee into the nearest one's groin, she slammed the back of her head into the face of the female trying to restrain her from behind, before turning around and giving her an uppercut to the jaw.

These Lobotomites weren't very skilled when it came to fighting, nor did they seem to be able to communicate any kind of strategy to each other… but their advantage came from the face that even _more_ of them were still coming out from behind the concrete pillars. The Courier managed to hit a couple more of them, but eventually the swarm managed to grab her arms, quickly followed by her ankles as well, but instead of tackling her… they lifted her above their heads while cheering in gibberish.

First pulling her arms and legs in different directions as far as they would go as if she were being _drawn and quartered_ , the Lobotomites cheered again when Tonya screamed, before bringing her wrists together above her head so that they could be tied together with an old rope. The same was done with her ankles, but even being immobilized by them wasn't as frightening as when one of the masked people picked up her plasma rifle.

Were they going to shoot her? She wondered as the masked female looked the weapon over. It had always seemed to incredibly painful when things were shot with plasma, but the good news for her was that she was no longer going to have to worry about that… after the Lobotomite screamed and smashed the rifle against one of the pillars until it broke apart. Suddenly she was moving; the crowd that was holding her up in the air, now also carrying her away from the concrete forest, but try as she might, there was no way for the Courier to free herself.

"Julius!" She screamed when the Lobotomites tossed her up into the air, only to catch her again. "Julius, help!"

It wasn't like she _wanted_ to be helped by someone from the Legion, but at this point Tonya would take what she could get… of course, the Legionary was kind of busy at the moment, getting tackled by half a dozen of the group that had split off. Apparently the crowd was excited by her capture, throwing her up into the air and catching her repeatedly, while only missing once in a while, and just picking her up again.

Now a great distance from the hexagonal pillars, the Courier realized that the Lobotomites were not just carrying her around at random, but heading for a specific place. That specific place was a cave built into the mountains at the edge of the crater, and after passing through the darkened mouth, Tonya saw that the vast, open chamber they were now opening was… filled with junk.

All kinds of scavenged appliances, clothing, scrap metal pieces, and pretty much everything else was scattered across the cave's floor like the messy room of a poorly behaved child. The masked Lobotomites didn't seem to care, though, preferring to continue to dance around while yelling in gibberish… while taking the Courier over to a place where a couple other out of place captives were being held… including one that looked familiar.

"Tonya of Phoenix?!" Trooper Gleeson exclaimed, quickly becoming saddened. "They captured you, too, huh?"

The brunette NCR Trooper, along with a man that she didn't know, was hanging up so that her tiptoes could just barely touch the floor, suspended by the rope around her wrists, it having been hung over a curved hook that was attached to the rock ceiling. The Courier struggled to keep this from happening to herself, but was unable to stop the Lobotomites from hanging her up next to Gleeson in the same way, and then everything seemed to stop when she heard some… off-key music?

Jumping back and gibbering as if they were afraid, the Lobotomites kept their distance while another one of them came out from behind a partially hidden tunnel, wearing a small traffic cone on his head and carrying a… an accordion? Yes, this masked man was walking around with an accordion strapped to his front, and when he played a horrible sounding note, all of the others jumped back as if they were afraid of it.

"That's the _Chief_ of this tribe." Gleeson whispered fearfully. "Whatever you do, stay very quiet and still so they don't choose you."

"Choose me?" The Courier asked, cringing when another note was played to control the tribe. "Choose me for _what_?"

The brunette Trooper shushed her urgently, and then the Chief of the Lobotomites began to speak, his words being nothing but a bunch of slurred nonsense while he and some of the others drooled involuntarily. Next he pointed at all three of the captives, before walking over and dragging his tongue up the side of Gleeson's face, making the poor girl's whole body tense up. Apparently not satisfied, the Chief moved on, turning Tonya around and squeezing her rear with both hands as hard as he could… before moving on once again.

" _Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum_!" The Chief spoke quickly, rubbing his belly while pointing to the captive man. " _Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum_!"

Playing another note that was apparently a signal for the rest of them to seize the chosen captive, the man screamed as they pulled him down, and a tear flowed down Gleeson's cheek as she looked away. The Courier, however, watched intently as the Lobotomites ripped the man's clothes off before dragging him over to the corner of the cave… where a large fire was going. The man fought as hard as he could, but was unable to stop them from tying him upside down to a long wooden pole that was suspended over the fire… and then they tossed in some fuel from a red drum.

" _Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum_!" The Chief continued as the screaming, enflamed man was rotated around by the others. " _Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum_!"


	12. Chapter 12 The Cuckoo's Nest

**Greetings from Big MT**

 **Chapter Twelve: The Cuckoo's Nest**

The Lobotomites spoke more gibberish to each other as the man was slowly spit-roasted over the fire, and soon his screams stopped. As horrific as it was to watch this whole process, Tonya was glad that she and Gleeson hadn't been chosen for this meal, giving her time to free herself. First the Courier tried to grab onto the hook and pull herself up, but the ropes were keeping her from getting a grip… then she tried lunging upward, but couldn't get high enough since her feet weren't actually reaching the ground.

"I can't move my arms anymore." The brunette Trooper explained, trying to keep from looking at the fire. " _Please_ tell me you can get us out of here… I'm scared, Tonya."

"Working on it." Tonya replied, again trying to get the rope over the hook. "Just be brave, and don't do anything to attract their attention, okay?"

Suddenly one of the masked Lobotomites broke away from the group, yelling incoherently as he ran over to the two captives, and drooling out his mask as he got right in Gleeson's face. This young woman didn't look any more than eighteen, _maybe_ , with no business being a Trooper in the NCR, and the brunette was so scared as the Lobotomite began groping all around her body, that she let out a _yelp_ of fight.

"No!" Gleeson shrieked when he started undoing her belt. "No, don't touch me! Let go of me!"

There didn't seem to be any way to reason with the masked people, probably since they had all gotten at least a large portion of their brains removed by Dr. Klein, and the Courier wasn't exactly in a position to help her against him. So the Lobotomite backhanded her when she started flailing her legs around, and then he removed the rope around her ankles in order to roughly pull the brunette Trooper's pants off… and then try to put them on, himself?

With an obvious size difference between Gleeson, who was built similarly to Tonya, and the Lobotomite, who was quite muscular, her pants didn't get up past his thighs, but this didn't deter him. Instead, the masked man shouted while raising his arms in victory, before waddling back over to the others at the fire and showing off the pants as if they were some hard won battle prize. Wearing Gleeson's pants like that limited his speed and made him almost fall over a few times, but for some reason one of the others was looking pretty jealous.

"Oh, you've _got_ to be kidding me." The Courier said to herself as he ran toward her. "Don't touch me, you _freak_ , I said keep your God damn hands off!"

Again there wasn't really anything that she could do to stop him besides kick at him once the rope was removed from her ankles, which she did a lot more effectively than Gleeson had managed to. Landing a solid kick that broke off a piece of the Lobotomite's mask, and knocked him down, Tonya expected him to get angry, but instead he put her pants on just as excitedly as the one had done with Gleeson.

So there they were, hanging by a rope around their wrists, and no longer wearing pants, but… at least the fire made the temperature a little more bearable… if she didn't think too much about the man being barbequed on it. Not too long after that the Lobotomites began cutting off pieces of him, which they shoved into their mouths, regardless of how undercooked or bloody it was… making Gleeson wretch as if she were about to vomit. The brunette Trooper froze, however, when the Chief ran over to her after finishing his meal.

With more gibberish and drool coming from his mouth, the cone-wearing Lobotomite played a note on his accordion, as if trying to frighten the poor girl, and it was working, causing him to become even more excited. He then reached down and grabbed one of Gleeson's ankles, making her cry out as he brought her foot up to his mouth in order to… start licking it? Oh, God, gross, Tonya thought as the Chief's stuck his tongue out through the mask so that he could drag it across the bottom of her foot and in between her toes.

"I wanna go home!" The brunette Trooper yelled, tears now streaming down her cheeks. "Help! Someone help me! Help!"

As much as the Courier wanted to save the poor girl, there was still nothing she could do to help her, aside from a few attempts to get the Chief's attention, which didn't work. Just then a new sound entered the cavern, that of a new Lobotomite stomping aggressively into the cave, yelling gibberish like the others, but also wearing a small traffic cone on his head like the Chief. He yelled and stomped, beating his chest before pointing at the Chief as if trying to challenge him. This got the attention of the others, who cleared out of the way so that their leader could step up to the intruder.

Without hesitation, the Chief began to play a series of jumbled, incoherent notes on his accordion while yelling gibberish, and doing a kind of awkward dance around the challenger, but while the other masked people were terrified by this display, the challenger was unimpressed. In response, he opened his hand to reveal that he was holding an old pre-war flip-lighter, and after opening the lid, he struck the flint, making all of them, including the Chief, jump backwards at this display of fire-making.

A couple of the Lobotomites screamed and ran from the cave, but the others started to regain what passed for their composure once the Chief walked over to a kind of haphazardly put together shrine or maybe alter that seemed to be made up of more random junk. From this junk the Chief produced an old bell-hammer alarm clock, causing the watching Lobotomites to back away nervously as he turned a dial on the back before pushing a button.

Whatever composure the Lobotomites now had was lost when the alarm clock went off, filling the chamber with the worst, ear-splitting sound that could be made by such a device, but while the masked observers freaked out, and the two captive women cringed from the sound, the challenger was once again unimpressed. The Chief seemed sure of his victory, stopping the noise by tossing the clock onto the floor so hard that it shattered, and then raising his arms up while yelling more gibberish.

Eventually the noise and commotion stopped when the Chief grabbed everyone's attention by playing more notes on his accordion, and he looked ready to gloat about his success… if these people even _could_ gloat… but then the challenger walked up to him. Holding up his hands so that everyone could see that there was nothing in them, the challenger slowly reached over behind the Chief's ear… and came back holding a coin.

Now even the Chief screamed, tossing away his accordion while running toward the cave entrance, and even discarding the traffic cone on his head while he, and all of the other frightened Lobotomites ran out across the crater, flailing their arms and screaming gibberish until they got too far away to be heard any longer. The challenger, however, remained where he was; dropping the coin and the lighter, before removing the traffic cone and his mask to reveal…

"Julius?!" Tonya and Gleeson exclaimed at the same time.

Yes, it was their very own Legionary, wearing the hospital gown of the Lobotomites, and not much else as he walked over to the two captive women. He must have taken the clothes and mask from one of the Lobotomites that he had been fighting with, the Courier thought as he put his arms around the brunette Trooper's hips, lifting her wrist-rope over the hook so that she could stand on the ground while he untied her.

"That was… _amazing_." Gleeson said, trying to move her arms as the feeling slowly came back. "How did you know how to do all that?"

"Well, I'm not just some _Recruit_ , you know." He explained, finishing untying her. "Back in Arizona, we encountered several primitive tribes, and Caesar's plans for getting some of them to submit were… _helpful_ here, let's just say."

Now that he had rescued them and finished untying Gleeson, Tonya expected the Legionary to say something about her needing his help, or maybe the fact that neither she nor Gleeson were wearing pants, but he didn't. Instead, Julius put his arms around her hips and lifted the Courier gently off of the hook before setting her down… but not letting go just yet… at least not before leaning in and giving her a kiss on the forehead.

"I told you I'd protect you, Tonya." He whispered into her ear while untying the rope around her wrists. "No matter what happens, you can _always_ feel safe with me."

Julius then kissed her on the cheek, leaving Tonya just standing there with her mouth hanging open while he walked over to a pile of clothes that had been discarded. Gleeson followed, with the Courier barely aware of what the brunette Trooper was saying, such as _isn't she married_ , and also something about not everyone wearing the same size clothes, even though such a thing would have made life _a lot_ easier.

Her thoughts, however, were not on the conversation, but apparently stuck on a continuous replay of the Legionary lifting her down from the hook, and the things he said before kissing her cheek. No, Tonya thought, no, there was _no way_ that she was going to start having romantic feelings about a member of Caesar's fucking Legion… they had burned down her home, killed her friends, and hurt her in ways that were hard to even think about… but the way he had freed her from the hook had been so damn… _sexy_.

Still not thinking quite clearly by the time that some new pants that sort of fit were found for herself and Gleeson, the cold wind from the snow-covered crater never failed to repair the Courier's focus… that, and the fact that she was starting to hear music. Not the pre-war kind that was usually played on _New Reno News_ or _Radio New Vegas_ down south, but a loud, jumpy kind of electronic music with a fast tempo… and lights that flashed along with it.

"What in the world is going on over there?" Tonya asked, pointing across the way. "Are you two _seeing_ this?"

There was a building not too far from their current location, designed one of New Reno's giant old factories with a big smokestack and walls that went up several floors, probably for a single large room… and it sounded like the electronic music was coming from there. Small searchlights also lined the edges of the building's rooftop and archways, flashing a series of bright colored beams that changed and blinked with the music… and causing the Courier to realize that the sun was setting.

"If it's being used, maybe one of those Think Tanks is in there." She suggested, starting away from the cave. "Come on, let's get indoors before it gets too dark outside."


	13. Chapter 13 Dr Dala's Teddy Bear

**Greetings from Big MT**

 **Chapter Thirteen: Dr. Dala's Teddy Bear**

All right, so the music-blasting building with the flashing lights was a bit further away than Tonya thought, and the sun was just about completely down by the time the three of them had reached the doors to the uh… _Z-38 Lightwave Dynamics Research Center_ , according to the painted words above the door. The electronic music was even louder now, seeming to come from inside the large, box-shaped structure, while the constantly changing colored lights still flashed with the tempo.

Clearly this building was occupied by someone or something, and they didn't seem afraid of being disturbed, so the Courier decided that caution was the best way to go about it… especially since none of them were armed. As with every other installation within the crater, the front door was unlocked, leading into a small reception office that contained an unused desk, a set of dusty filing cabinets, and a chair that had broken in half at some point.

A set of dusty, but perfectly preserved bathrooms was through a door that was located immediately behind the desk, and aside from that there were two doors for them to choose from: One was a set of flimsy double doors with small Plexiglas windows built in, where lights and movement could be seen through the clouded material, while the other was a kind of standard metal hatch. With everything that Tonya had seen so far in Big MT, there could have been anything, absolutely _anything_ going on in the big, open chamber, so it was best to try the other way first.

"All right, let's try to be careful, here." She said, trying to be quiet while being heard over the music. "We don't know what's going on in that room, and the last thing we need is for a _Nuka Cola machine_ or something to come to life like in Higgs Village."

"Fine then, you girls stay behind me." Julius said, also trying to be quiet in spite of the music. "Hopefully we can find a way to shut this damn music off."

Tonya agreed about the music, but didn't have time to protest him going first, since the Legionary headed for the metal hatch door as soon as he was finished talking. The music muffled most of the noises in the building, so no one was worried about the sound of opening it, and beyond the door was a metal grated stairway that went up. So Julius went first, followed by the Courier, and then Trooper Gleeson bringing up the rear. This staircase led up to an observation walkway on the second floor of a kind of vast factory chamber, but it was… odd.

Instead of conveyer belts and large machines, this chamber was mostly empty except for some strange looking equipment along the walls of the first floor, along with a big blue glowing apparatus in the center. The walkway they were standing on wrapped around the whole place, going down again on the other side, and there were half a dozen blue figures kind of… dancing on the stairs as well as on the bottom floor. For a moment the sight of these flickering blue women confused her as they danced seductively in unison, but then she gasped after remembering where she had seen them before.

They were holograms… specifically Vera Keyes holograms like the ones she had seen back at the Sierra Madre, but believe it or not this was _not_ the strangest sight to be found in the room. At the center, on a platform above the blue apparatus, was a man… he had been stripped down to his underwear, and was clumsily trying to dance in a similar manner to the holograms, while another floating brain robot hovered in slow circles around him.

" _Move and shake, my little teddy bear_." The brain tank said in a female voice. " _Breathe, and stretch, and moan, and move… give Dr. Dala what she wants, my sweet, soft, organic, little teddy bear_."

"Is that… Corporal Fretwell?" Gleeson asked, squinting to see through the flashing lights. "Why is he… what is _wrong_ with everyone in this place?"

The tempo of the music suddenly changed, causing the Vera holograms to move faster as well; shaking their hips and whipping their hair around with arms above their heads… although Julius didn't seem to mind watching them. Oh well, as uncomfortable as it was to see six clones of herself dancing for… whatever was happening in this place, the male Trooper was in trouble, so they had to save him… just as soon as she could figure out where the emitter was.

Back at the Sierra Madre, the Courier had seen Dean Domino shut off a hologram by shooting its emitter, but it was almost impossible to see where they were, since each Vera had a different one, and the flashing lights made it hard to distinguish colors. However, there was no more time to search for them, when in the corner of her eye, Tonya saw the Legionary pick up a piece of metal pipe on the walkway, before moving toward the edge.

"These brain things are nothing but trouble." He said, climbing over the guard rail. "Sit tight, girls, I'm gonna stop this once and for all."

Without any time to warn him, the Courier could only watch as Julius leapt down onto the platform, swinging the pipe right into the head of the nearest hologram, and startling the brank tank that called herself Dr. Dala. Continuing the attack, the Legionary spun around and swung at the second hologram as well, followed by throwing the pipe at the third one's head with all his strength… but just like with Tonya's first encounter with them at the Sierra Madre Clinic, he didn't understand what they were.

To be fair, that series of blows would have probably killed any other set of enemies, but in this case the pipe just passed right through them while the flickering women turned yellow… and then red. Fretwell covered his face with his arms to protect himself as the nearest hologram sent a blast of red energy right into Julius's chest, knocking him off his feet, and throwing him from the platform, where he fell to the floor. The Legionary was still breathing, so thankfully Dr. Dala must've been using the non-lethal settings… like when Dean Domino had tried to capture her.

" _Don't let the party-pooper spoil our evening, teddy bear_." The brain tank said, going around and pushing Fretwell to a small table where some chalky pills were sitting. " _Here, try one of these; I call them 'Party Time Mentats'. They open your mind like normal ones, but with the added side effect of making you vomit, defecate, and orgasm at the same time. Take one_!"

The male Trooper looked like he didn't want to, and who _would_ , based on their description, but the holograms were still red. A couple energy blasts near his feet, and Fretwell was a lot more willing, picking up one of the pills and chewing it up before swallowing… only to vomit it back up along with all the contents of his stomach. Now falling down on the platform while he suffered the… _other_ effects of the Party Time Mentats, the floating brain tank hovered over to a kind of dispenser, where one of the pills was chopped up before being injected into the gel surrounding her brain.

Dr. Dala let out an electronic scream as she started spinning around, her eye and mouth monitors completely losing their vertical hold while she floated around aimlessly, bumping into things until the pills' effect wore off several seconds later. The brain tank seemed satisfied, letting out a pleasured sigh, but as for Fretwell… he was a mess… which didn't stop Dr. Dala from yelling at him to get back up once the holograms turned blue again.

" _Dance, teddy bear_!" The brain tank ordered, resuming her circles around him. " _Do it… I said do it! With feeling! Shake, and kick, and wave, and breathe… move like my girls! Yeah, keep it slippery and organic… dance! Dance like Vera Keyes, the most beautiful and talented actress in the world! Now give mommy a kiss_."

Dr. Dala's digital lips puckered up as she floated up to the male Trooper, and after another shot at the floor from a Vera hologram, Fretwell was crying as he kissed her mouth screen. She yelled at him to do it passionately, to pretend that she was Vera Keyes, and to use his tongue; telling him to lick her more and more until the now sobbing Trooper was dragging his tongue over every inch of the screen while Dr. Dala cried out with the same amount of ecstasy as if they were having sex.

" _Mmmmm, that's what mommy likes, teddy bear_!" The brain tank moaned, pushing him back toward the table. " _Have another Mentat… do it now! Who's your First Head Chief Researcher of Big Mountain? Say my name, teddy bear_! _Say it_!"

"Dr. Dala is!" Fretwell sobbed, tears running down his cheeks as he choked down another pill. "Dr. Dala is my…

His words were cut off as the Party Time Mentat hit him full force, again causing the male Trooper to collapse onto the platform, but during all this Tonya was able to come up with a plan. Although the chamber was empty of equipment, the walls on the ground floor were lined with pre-war posters, most of them for the Sierra Madre Casino and the old vid Love Sets Sail… but the important part was that all of them pictured Vera Keyes.

"Come on, Gleeson, back downstairs." The Courier said, grabbing her arm. "I have a plan to save Fretwell, but I need your help."

The brunette Trooper protested leaving her comrade at the mercy of Dr. Dala, with the dancing resuming once the brain tank's own Party Time Mentat wore off, but since Julius was proof that attacking wouldn't work in this situation, Tonya was going to have to bring out one of her strategy's from the Sierra Madre… the one she had used last time holograms were a problem. However, first she needed to alter her appearance.

"Ah, ha." She said, opening the first drawer of the reception desk, and finding it full of pre-war makeup and cosmetics. "All right, now this is going to seem a little strange, but just bear with me."

Snatching a couple more things from inside the desk drawers, the Courier pulled Gleeson into the bathroom, and brushed the brunette Trooper's hair down so that it was plain looking and neat. She then put a pair of sunglasses that she had taken from the desk on Gleeson's face, and shoved an old clipboard into her hands, before turning her attention to herself. It took a while to do the lipstick and make up properly, but when she was finished, Tonya let her hair down and brushed it, causing Gleeson to gasp.

"Oh, my God!" The brunette Trooper exclaimed. "You look just like the woman on those posters, but… Tonya, what the hell are we doing?!"

"Just relax and follow my lead." The Courier explained as they walked out of the bathroom. "Now when we go in there, I want you to act like you're annoyed, like we've got somewhere important to be, okay? And make sure to address me as Ms. Keyes… here we go."

Gleeson didn't look like she understood, but that couldn't be helped. After all, there was an NCR Trooper to save, and there was no turning back as the two of them walked through the flimsy doors into the chamber.


	14. Chapter 14 Ms Vera Keyes

**Greetings from Big MT**

 **Chapter Fourteen: Ms. Vera Keyes**

Tonya had to admit that she was nervous walking through the flimsy double doors into the chambers where Dr. Dala's _party_ was still going in full swing. However, as soon as the flying brain tank spotted her and Gleeson, the digital eyes on her monitors widened; gasping as the music and dancing came to a stop while Dr. Dala hovered right down to the Courier, while nearly knocking Gleeson down in the process.

" _Oh my God_!" The brain tank exclaimed, doing a scan while quickly floating in a circle around her. " _Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God! Can this really be happening?! Vera Keyes, the star of Love Sets Sail, in 'my' laboratory?! Oh, and you even brought your… frumpy Agent, oh, I must be dreaming_!"

Uh… hi, you must be Dr. Dala." Tonya replied, causing the brain tank to gasp with delight upon being recognized. "My Agent keeps me on a busy schedule, but when I found out we were stopping at Big Mountain, well, I just had to come and meet its famous _First Head Chief Researcher_."

While Dr. Dala was literally spinning around in excitement from being complemented by who she thought was her favorite actress… from two hundred years ago… the Courier was trying to whisper instructions to Gleeson without getting the brain tank's attention. The goal in this whole charade was to keep Dr. Dala distracted while somehow getting Julius and Fretwell out of there, but although the brain tank clearly believed Tonya to be Vera Keyes, she had no idea how to get the others out of there.

"Ms. Keyes, we really don't have a lot of time." The brunette Trooper said, trying to keep in character. "We're going to have to leave pretty soon."

" _You're not going anywhere_!" Dr. Dala yelled, making Gleeson jump. " _Not until you sign my Love Sets Sail poster. There's a permanent marker over there; and write_ _'to Dr. Dala, my secret lover. I can't live without you, love Vera Keyes'._ "

This request seemed a little odd, but Tonya did as she asked, retrieving a permanent marker from the nearby desk, and writing out the autograph on the protective plastic cover that was over the pre-war vid poster. The floating brain tank was overjoyed at this, laughing and spinning around while flying around the chamber, but with the six holograms still around pulling guard, there was no way to just grab the two captives and run away. Plus, the Courier still had to convince Dr. Dala to go to the Think Tank to meet with Dr. Klein.

" _Thank you so much, Vera_." Dr. Dala said, floating back over to her. " _So what brings you all the way out to Big Mountain? On your way to make another steamy romance vid with Mike Berlyn… oh, or maybe Dean Domino? I heard you two were a thing, so just between us girls… what's he like between the sheets?_ "

Throughout this questioning, Tonya tried her best to keep in character, which was not easy with the brain tank having brought up Dean Domino… the ghoul at the Sierra Madre who had beaten her senseless, raped her, and then turned her into a Med-X junkie for half a year. Still, as painful as these memories were… the mention of her possibly making a vid opened up a possible way to get the two men out of there… if only she could pull it off.

"Dean Domino is hung like my _pinky finger_ , and cries after sex." The Courier said, forcing out a laugh. "But yeah, we're on our way out to make a new vid, and we actually need, uh… _extras_. Yeah, that's it, we need specifically _male_ extras, _two_ of them for uh… Love Sets Sail… _part two_?"

"Uh, yeah, male extras." Gleeson added, a bit unconvincingly after Tonya elbowed her in the side. "You know what, Ms. Keyes, these two men Dr. Dala have right here in this lab would be _so_ perfect. Oh, _please_ , Ms. Keyes, ask your _biggest_ and most _favorite_ fan if we can use them."

" _Anything for Vera Keyes_!" The brain tank exclaimed happily. " _I've been waiting for years for a sequel to Love Sets Sail, and if my teddy bears can help make that happen… oh, just promise me that there'll be another scene of you lying on the deck in a bikini like in the first one_."

Okay, that was actually really, _really_ easy, compared to everything else that Tonya had gone through since arriving at the crater, and not wanting to give Dr. Dala the chance to change her mind, the Courier had Gleeson go tell Julius, who was just recovering from the blast, what was going on, so that the two of them could help Fretwell, who was… in pretty bad shape by the looks of him. The male Trooper was lying on the platform in a fetal position, a mess from the effects of the Party Time Mentats, while sobbing and muttering to himself.

" _Vera, I have one more favor to ask_." The brain tank said as the others helped Fretwell up. " _I've often thought about giving up my life of science and study, and trying my hand at being a star in vids myself. How about you taking me with you as well, and putting in a good word with that uncle producer of yours, about jumpstarting my career_?"

Even if Tonya really _had_ been Vera Keys, and _really_ on her way to go make a sequel to Love Sets Sail… she was going to have to actually watch that sometime… there was no way that she would _ever_ willing go somewhere with one of those creepy floating brains. Of course, it wasn't like the Courier could just _say_ all that to Dr. Dala, since she knew just how deadly those Vera holograms could be… so she was going to have to think fast.

"Dr. Dala, I know you're not going to want to hear this." She said, remembering what an exotic dancer in New Reno had once said to let down an NCR Trooper. "But you and I belong in different worlds… and your world is out there in the Big Mountain, while mine is, well… on vids, I guess. I'll be thinking of you, though, and I'll sleep soundly at night knowing that you're out there, keeping the world safe with your… science."

Cheesy? Yes. Ridiculous? Yes… but judging from the digital tears running down the displays of her eye monitors, Dr. Dala was buying it. Throwing in the addition of Dr. Klein desperately needing her at the Think Tank for the battle against Dr. Mobius of the Forbidden Zone, the brain tank suddenly floated forward, slamming her mouth monitor against the side of Tonya's face for a digital kiss that nearly knocked her over, and then floating out of the building through a small upper window… hopefully to go see Dr. Klein.

By this time the others had reached the small reception office, and when the Courier caught up to them, Gleeson and Julius were both standing next to Fretwell, who was sitting on the lower half of the broken chair, still crying his eyes out in a fetal position. His clothes had been easy to recover, having been left on the ground next to the stairs of the platform, but the male Trooper couldn't even look at his teammate while she helped him get dressed.

"Fretwell, try to relax." Gleeson said in a soothing voice, trying to hold him. "Dr. Dala's gone, she can't hurt you anymore… you're safe now."

For a moment it looked like the male Trooper was going to say something, but after getting as far as looking around the room at the three of them standing around him, Fretwell broke down into tears once again. He might have been saying something, but it came out as a hysterical slur of choked up words, while he buried his face in his hands. From what he had just gone through, Tonya knew that Fretwell was going to need some time to collect himself, since he had technically just been raped by a machine.

"What is this guy's _problem_?" Julius whispered after walking over to the Courier. "The battle's over, there's no reason to be scared anymore, even for _softies_ like NCR types."

"Julius, come here." She replied, pulling him by the forearm back into the now empty large chamber. "Fretwell just went through something pretty traumatic, and he's feeling pretty awful right now, so he needs us to be there for him, you know… _emotionally_."

She knew damn well that the Legionary didn't really understand, since the scene with the male Trooper had probably been played out in front of him a thousand times with newly captured slaves… mostly the female kind. To him, Fretwell probably seemed weak and pathetic, but what she was trying to make him understand was what that kind of treatment did to a person… how it broke them down, and made them feel worthless, and how being used like that against your will could completely destroy your spirit.

"Well, it didn't destroy _yours_." Julius replied, scoffing at the male Trooper's condition. "Tonya, I am _trying_ … I'm really _trying_ to see things from your Arizonian point of view, because you're an amazing woman, but… but maybe you wouldn't have had to be so strong your whole life if the men of the NCR weren't such… _girls_. Even little _Gleeson_ in there is handling things better than that guy."

"There are _plenty_ of strong men in the NCR." The Courier argued. "Plenty of strong _women_ , too, but sometimes we _all_ need a little compassion in our lives, and it's not weak to give that to others. You say you want to impress me, and show me that you aren't just some Legion prick like all the others, right? Well then, why don't you go back in there and show Fretwell a little support?"

The Legionary looked like he was about to say something, but then he stopped, before sort of glaring at her for a second, and then walking away. At first Tonya was confused by his next move, which was to climb up onto the platform, and grab a couple small items from one of the trays, only to come back down, and walk back into the reception office, with the Courier following close behind. Julius then pushed Gleeson out of the way, and grabbed the male Trooper by the front of the shirt to make him stand up.

"On your feet, Soldier!" He yelled, startling Fretwell. "Are you really gonna just sit there crying because Dr. Dala made you her bitch?! Well, I got news for you, Fretwell; you're a _man_ , and Dr. Dala's a _woman_ , and any time a man does _anything_ sexual with a woman, _he's_ the winner. Dr. Dala's really _your_ bitch, because she couldn't resist all _this_ , you understand?! Now in celebration of _your_ sexual conquest, all of us here are gonna take a Party Time Mentat. Time to step up, _girls_."

At first Tonya had wanted to slug Julius in the face for the way he was treating the male Trooper, but somehow, surprisingly… Fretwell was improving, as if the nonsense the Legionary was saying was _actually_ getting through to him. In fact, he was no longer crying, and was standing up on his own power, while improving even more when Julius divided up the Party Time Mentats between the three of them. There was no way that the Courier wanted to participate in this, but after everything she had said to the Legionary, she couldn't just back down now.

"All right, on the count of three, everyone take it." Julius said as they all held their Mentat. "One… two… _three_."


	15. Chapter 15 Superego

**Greetings from Big MT**

 **Chapter Fifteen: Superego**

Well, the good news was that Trooper Fretwell was feeling a lot better now than he had before about his whole experience with Dr. Dala, but the bad news was that Tonya had been left feeling… more _confused_ than anything else after having to take one of the brain tank's Party Time Mentats. Julius had taken it surprisingly well, just kind of bending forward while turning red and making some awkward grunting noises as he dealt with the effects… yeah, not so easy for the women.

Gleeson had fallen over, coughing and crying her eyes out, only to spend the next few minutes screaming in ecstasy at the top of her lungs… and then crying some more. The Courier was given a similar experience, just without the crying, and for some reason she found herself calling out _Harland_ , the name of her very first boyfriend back before leaving New Reno to work for the Mojave Express. Needless to say that after everyone came down, and some time was spent cleaning themselves up, they were all pretty eager to leave the facility.

Focusing on the positive of this whole experience as they started once again trudging through the falling snow, Tonya was glad that so far every survivor of New Reno that she had encountered in the crater had been rescued, along with Dr. O and Dr. Dala agreeing to return to the Think Tank for whatever Dr. Klein had planned… leaving only a single member of the floating brains left to find… but also Lieutenant Layla and Junior unaccounted for.

The others would be found, the Courier told herself as they continued with her plan to make a wide circle around the crater until stumbling across something, and if she had managed to survive the Sierra Madre, then she could certainly survive Big Mountain. However, there was one thing that needed to be done before it left Tonya's mind, and although it personally wounded her pride, it was the right thing to do after everything that had just happened.

"Julius, I… think I owe you an apology." She said quietly, after moving closer to him. "I thought you were just another selfish Legion prick, but what you did for Fretwell back there, it was… it was pretty amazing."

"Thank you, Tonya, but _you're_ the one who got us away from Dr. Dala." The Legionary replied with a half-smile. "Tell you the truth, I think you and I make a pretty good team, and… you'll see that I'm not such a bad guy if you give me a chance."

She found herself smiling back a little, and _without_ instantly regretting it this time. He did have a point about them working well together, since they had defeated that Muggy robot, and gotten away from Dr. Dala with Fretwell's body and sanity intact… not to mention how Julius had singlehandedly rescued her and Gleeson from those Lobotomites. Since he had been a member of the Legion, even though he claimed to be leaving them forever, it was still hard for Tonya to not picture Julius as just another copy of Aurelius of Phoenix, but… Aurelius had also never gone out of his way to look after her, either.

"Why don't we start over; clean slate I mean." She suggested, offering her hand. "From now on we only know each other as Tonya _Greene_ , not Tonya of Phoenix, and you're just, well… Julius."

"I can work with that, Tonya." He replied as they shook hands. "I've never been actual _friends_ with a woman before, but… I'll win you over eventually."

" _Oh, my God, are you 'serious' right now_?" A female synthesized voice interrupted just as they were starting to smile. " _Surprise, surprise, Tonya the God damn 'saloon door' is going to spread her legs yet again._ "

At first she thought that it was Dr. Dala coming back, but this voice, although synthesized as female, sounded nothing like the one that belonged to the floating brain tank. This was confusing because there was no one around outside her ever enlarging group, but then a metal squeaking sound reached her ears as a strange kind of robot rolled into view on metal tracks. Like the members of the Think Tank, this thing had a brain on top that was encased in some kind of gel inside a transparent dome, but _unlike_ them it had a sturdy looking body, along with arms that had gripping tools at the end.

" _Hello, all you gawking flesh bags, my name is Superego_." The robot explained, stopping after reaching the group. " _Just to put this out there, each one of you disgusts me in your own special way, but none more than you 'Tonya of Phoenix'. I mean, what were you thinking, having sex with a Ghoul when you were 'fourteen' and he was over 'two hundred'? Two hundred years old, you little harlot_!"

"How did you know… what are you?!" The Courier demanded, kind of nervously looking at the robot. "Where did you come from, I mean…

Suddenly Superego swung its arm, and Tonya let out a startled _yelp_ as it struck her across the face with enough force to make her slide a couple feet across the snow after she fell down. Julius and the others started to react, moving toward the robot in an attempt to fight it off, but this effort was stopped when a plasma pistol attachment was produced from inside its metal frame, forcing all of them to back off. It then ordered them to get on their knees with their hands behind their heads, keeping the weapon pointed at them while advancing toward the Courier.

Tonya was just starting to get up, putting a hand on her reddened, throbbing cheek, when Superego punched her with its other arm, this time in the stomach so that she fell down to her hands and knees. Coughing and gasping for breath, the Courier had to think fast to avoid being hit again, so employing a weak strategy that was really all she had at the moment, she tried to use what she had learned from Pugilism Illustrated in order to restrain the robot's arms.

All she needed to do was keep one of them off balance long enough for the others to run, or to get her hands on that plasma attachment, but unfortunately Superego was ready for this, and… used the exact same moves from those magazines to not only stop Tonya, but also restrain her in a way that was so painful that the Courier couldn't help screaming. Forced down on her knees once again, the robot twisted her arms back so hard that she thought they were going to come off.

" _Don't bother struggling, you bitch_." Superego said, holding her there with minimal effort. " _Even if you get out of this, you'll just blame yourself for it, and then drink or use Med-X while no one is looking, because you think you deserve to be abused, and that no one will ever love you… God, you could 'drown' in the daddy issues, how do you live with yourself_?"

"Stop! My arms!" Tonya yelled, unable to keep herself from crying. "You're breaking my arms, please, stop!"

"Leave her alone!" Julius yelled, jumping to his feet, and ducking under the first plasma shot. "I said get away from her!"

Doing a kind of sideways jump to avoid the next blast from Superego's plasma pistol, the Legionary made a grab for the weapon, but it vanished back into the robot's frame, just before it was forced to release Tonya in order to defend itself against him. The Legionary crouched down and rammed his shoulder into the metal frame, locking his arms around it in an attempt to knock the machine off balance, but couldn't even make Superego budge an inch.

" _Ah, the unlikely 'white knight' who wants to get into her pants_." The robot continued, putting its arms around Julius's waist and squeezing until he cried out. " _Best to stay away from her, you know… between 'dumpster diving' through radioactive Vaults, and giving up her goods to people like 'Dean Domino' on the floor of Vera Keyes' dressing room, I'm surprised that she hasn't melted away into…_

During Superego's whole rant, Tonya had managed to recover enough to pick up a large nearby rock, and bash the robot in the back of the brain tank hard enough to make the tiniest little crack in the transparent casing. In reaction, the robot lifted Julius above its head, tossing him at Gleeson and Fretwell so that they were all knocked down, before turning around and grabbing onto the Courier's arm so tightly that her shoulder was almost pulled out it its socket when Superego yanked her back down onto the ground.

" _What, do you think that 'Julius' will love you_?" The robot asked, yanking on her arm again. " _Hoping he'll strangle you, and give you a black eye, and a busted lip during sex like Aurelius did? He won't love you… no one will 'ever' love you, because you're nothing but damaged goods, and your personality 'sucks', and I told the rest of you to stay put_!"

Another attachment was produced from Superego's frame, this time a laser weapon that made Fretwell cry out when it shot him in the arm, and also caused Gleeson to scream when she fell over from being shot in the leg. Now the robot was aiming at the Legionary, but was stopped when the Tonya used her free arm to grab for it, causing the weapon to retract into the frame, before Superego put both grips on her already injured arm… and snapped it.

The Courier started to let out a high pitch shriek of agony, but was cut off when the robot let go of her arm so that it could backhand her across the face once again, this time even harder before turning away. Now the machine turned around to take a look at each of them, scoffing as if they were beneath it, before starting to roll away on its metal tracks… finally grumbling something about needing to get its tank resealed _again_ , before vanishing from view.

"Tonya!" Julius called, rushing over to her. "Tonya, are you all right?!"

No, she absolutely wasn't, having been beaten and her arm broken by some crazy kind of… _brain robot_ that knew things about her which were just… impossible. She wanted to tell herself that the machine had just been lying to her, or trying some detestable new kind of psychological warfare to do… whatever its plans were, but she couldn't… because everything that Superego had said about what she had done and what she felt… it was all true.

Now trying to cradle her broken arm while Fretwell helped Gleeson up with her injured leg, the Courier just sat there, burying her head into Julius's chest when he crouched down to hold her, and just crying her eyes out while the snow kept falling on the Big Mountain crater.


	16. Chapter 16 Y-17 Respite

**Greetings from Big MT**

 **Chapter Sixteen: Y-17 Respite**

"And then Superego said that no one will ever love me… that I don't deserve it." Tonya said, her voice breaking a little. "But I _do_ deserve to be loved, just like anyone else… don't I, Dr. Orderly?"

With all of the injuries that the small group had suffered between the floating brain tanks, and that last encounter with Superego, there was really no way to continue with the search of the crater… at least not without rest and medical attention. So far, though, the rounded modified Mr. Handy machine that had first tended to her was the only one that didn't have other plans, or so it seemed… so there was no choice but to head back to the Y-17 Medical History.

The Auto-Docs there were more than capable of handling the wounds that each member of the group had suffered, and Dr. Orderly had welcomed them inside with open, uh… appendages, so it was agreed that all of them would stay the night. Y-17 had been stocked with pre-war food rations, and according to the rounded machine, so had pretty much all of the other ones around Big Mountain, so after everyone had been fully treated, there was a feast of things like _Cram_ , and _BlamCo Mac & Cheese_… the Courier's personal favorite, although she would never tell anyone that.

However, as everyone else went to find empty patient beds to sleep on for the night, Tonya's mind was being tormented by the hurtful and frighteningly accurate words that had been spoken to her by the brain robot that broke her arm. This bothered her so much that not only was she unable to sleep at all, but also there was that rare need to… talk to someone about what was going on. Julius and the NCR Troopers hadn't quite gotten to that level of trust just yet, but hey… the rounded robot had a PhD. right?

" _Well, you seem like a pleasant enough girl to me, Ms. Greene_." Dr. Orderly replied, hovering nearby while the Courier laid back on the couch. " _Self-loathing, however, is an unfortunate side effect of abuse, especially in situations where the victim is left completely vulnerable, and others take advantage. In rape victims, especially, one can be left feeling that they deserve such treatment because of being too weak to prevent it, or not being worthy of being shown respect by others_."

"That _bitch_ , Superego, called me a _saloon door_." Tonya continued, getting a little angry now. "It's like she thinks that I just _bend over_ for any man who makes eye-contact, but I'll have you know that it's been a… pretty long time since I… since I was with a man _consensually_."

Oh wow, that thought was actually pretty depressing, causing the Courier to stop before saying what she was going to next. How long had it been since she was in a relationship, or even had a _consensual_ one night stand? There had been a woman that she had spent the night with in _Junktown_ during a delivery job, but that had been before the Sierra Madre… a couple of _years_ before the Sierra Madre. But when was the last time she _chose_ to be with a man?

She wasn't blind or chaste or anything like that; Tonya liked men, she liked them a lot, and a man could be attractive even if he was an asshole or a member of the Legion, like Julius. Yes, she could freely admit to herself that the Legionary was _hot_ , but there was that whole _helping to burn New Reno_ thing, and that was a little hard to get past… let alone how he used to work for the man who not only raped her, but also forced her to marry him.

"I don't even know why I'm worrying about this, right now." She said, suddenly feeling kind of silly. "I'm supposed to be finding the other New Reno survivors, and one more member of the Think Tank so that they can… do _whatever_ with this _Mobius_ guy, so that I can get my brain back, and we can all get out of here."

" _Actually, Ms. Green, I believe that I can help you there_." Dr. Orderly replied, its optical sensors zooming in on her face. " _Dr. Borous, a member of the Think Tank, has logged in with his credentials at the nearby X-8 Research Center, and there has also been some activity at the X-2 Transmitter Antenna Array to the south_."

Well, now the Courier felt _really_ foolish, since she had gone wandering around the crater like an idiot, while the whole time her _primary care physician_ could have pointed out where to go right from the beginning. At least her arm wasn't broken any more, and those burns on her face she had received from the toaster in Higgs Village were gone, too… yeah, of all the things that she had _not_ expected to happen to her in life, being sodomized by a toaster was definitely toward the top.

Unfortunately, even though the rounded robot was able to tell where people had logged in, and what facilities were showing activity, there was no way for it to know what was actually the cause of it, be it some of the survivors, namely Lieutenant Layla and Junior, or something else… like that skeletal Captain Cosmos thing that had almost melted her with that plasma rifle. This just meant that both places would have to be investigated, and honestly Tonya was a little bit more excited to leave this place than she had been with even the Sierra Madre.

As nightmarish, hot, and painful as the entire experience at that pre-war deathtrap had been, at least the place made sense, unlike _anything_ that had happened since her arrival at Big Mountain. It was also pretty hard to believe that she was able to look back at something like pulling a casino heist with a bunch of violent misfits for a delusional madman… and calling it _simpler times_.

" _Ms. Greene, I believe that your self-loathing comes from feeling powerless_." The rounded robot continued once they got back on topic. " _The abuses that you have suffered, have left you feeling like no 'good man' will ever care about you, so maybe it is time for you to go on the offensive. You feel like you have no choice when it comes to men… then I believe you should pick one you like, and 'make' it your choice_."

Part of her felt like Dr. Orderly was giving her some _really_ bad advice, like the exact kind of thing that a parent would _not_ say to their daughter who was dealing with dating for the first time… but then again, the Courier was twenty six years old, not exactly a naive child, and the thought of being in control for once when it came to romance was… actually making her feel a little bit better. No, she wasn't about to go running upstairs to where the patient beds were, and pounce one of the men like a feral Ghoul or anything like that, but… Julius had said that he wanted to win her over, so… maybe it was time to let him try.

"Dr. Orderly, I need some advice." Tonya asked, trying to be a little quieter. "Julius is a member of the Legion, and you know what they did to me, but… he saved me a couple times, he's clever, and he is _so_ damn _hot_ , but… he's also a sexist. He thinks that I can't do things just because I'm a woman, but… would I be stupid if I liked him, and… thought maybe he can change?"

" _Well, I have noticed him attempting to win favor with you, Ms. Greene_." The rounded robot replied. " _The way his body temperature rises when looking at you indicated that your attraction is mutual, and the fact that he has chosen to monitor our conversation instead of sleeping, shows a possible concern for your wellbeing that is quite admirable_."

At first she started to nod after hearing this assessment, but then the last part registered in her mind, and the Courier found herself freezing in place while blushing. If the Legionary had been _monitoring_ the conversation, as in listening in, then that meant Julius had heard _everything_ she was saying… even the part about him being hot. It had been a long time since Tonya had felt this level of embarrassment, and she hoped that if she ended the conversation right now, that he would let it go and just get back to sleep… but, of course, Julius chose to come downstairs instead.

"Take a hike, robot." He ordered as Dr. Orderly started floating over to greet him. "Tonya, I'm sorry, I know that women don't like men to listen in when they're gossiping, but… do you really think I can change… to be more like what you want?"

Although still beet-red with embarrassment, the Courier was thankful that he had hung onto _that_ part of the conversation, instead of how she had gushed on and on about how incredibly attractive the Legionary was. Still hard to look at him, though, when he walked over and smirked when he saw how red her face was, so Tonya got up off the couch to walk away… but of course, he just _had_ to be a typical man and stop her.

"Tonya, wait… I know I don't deserve you… I don't think _any_ man does." Julius began, putting his hand on her arm to keep her there. "You're amazing, and smart, and, well… more capable than I thought a woman could _ever_ be. Maybe Caesar was wrong about women, I don't know, but I _really_ like you, and you… you seem to like how I _look_ , at least."

The Courier started to say something back to this, but instead the words came out like a stuttering jumble of random sounds, and she just found herself blushing even more, which seemed to amuse the Legionary greatly. Now he was laughing at her, making part of Tonya want to slug him in the mouth, but then he reached out and pushed some of her hair back behind her ear after it fell, and now she didn't know what to do. Heh… so much for staying in control where a man was concerned… well, maybe she still could.

"Okay, Julius… I'm going to give you a chance." She explained, trying to sound confident. "Show me that you are _really_ leaving the Legion, and that you are capable of respecting women, not just _me_ , and… we'll go from there, I guess."

"I can live with that." He replied, leaning in and giving her a kiss on the forehead. "Good night, Tonya… oh, and you're blushing again."

Julius walked away smiling, heading back upstairs for the night while the Courier felt even more embarrassed now… just not the kind of embarrassed that made her hate the Legionary more… in fact, just the opposite.


	17. Chapter 17 American High

**Greetings from Big MT**

 **Chapter Seventeen: American High**

With the night of rest soon completed, Tonya and the others agreed that the best way for them to search both the X-8 Research Center and the X-2 Transmitter Antenna Array was for the four of them to split up into two groups. Understandably still wary of Julius, Fretwell and Gleeson formed one group, insisting that they be the ones to check out the antenna, and the Courier didn't blame them after what had happened inside all of the other research facilities that they had entered.

As for herself and the Legionary, they would travel into X-8 to locate Dr. Borous, and with the uniting of every member of Dr. Klein's Think Tank, hopefully there would be a way out of the crater presented to them. For now, though, while the two NCR Troopers headed back south toward Higgs Village, where Dr. Orderly had said the array was located, Tonya and Julius went northwest, leaving the medical facility, and once again trudging their way through the fallen snow.

"If it wasn't for that damn radar fence, I'd just walk out of this madhouse." She grumbled, almost slipping on some slush near a short staircase. "This whole place, with everything we've seen here, it's like… it's like something out of a nightmare."

"Do you think the whole world was like this, pre-war?" Julius replied, avoiding the spot where she almost slipped. "I mean, do you think there were floating brains and those hologram things everywhere before the bombs fell?"

The Courier honestly didn't know, although this was the second almost perfectly preserved pre-war site that she had explored, the first being the Sierra Madre Casino, and she had seen some pretty crazy things at both. At least the air in the crater was breathable, though, unlike that red smoke that Dean Domino had used to incapacitate her back in the Residential District where he lived. For a moment Tonya wondered if Elijah was still down there, sealed inside the vault that Sinclair had made as a trap for the Ghoul before the bombs fell… but then again, Elijah was also such a bastard that she really didn't care.

Dr. Orderly had been right about the X-8 facility being fairly close, because it wasn't long before the two of them climbed up over a short hill, and another large building, this one far bigger than Dr. Dala's Z-38 warehouse, came into view. There was a radio dish, well, _broken_ radar dish on top of a tower that bordered the building, with the name of the facility painted across it for the world to see, so the Courier walked up to the front door, and pushed it open.

Now this place was… different, Tonya thought as her eyes slowly adjusted to the light levels once the door closed behind them. The floor was a kind of cheap, black and white checkered linoleum, the walls of this room were lined with tightly packed lockers, and from the ceiling hung a series of light fixtures that had dual fluorescent bulbs, sort of like the ones on the walls in subway tunnels. There were also those old tattered flags, the ones with the red and white stripes, and then the blue square with the stars in the middle, one hanging in the center of this entryway, while others were spaced out in the adjoining halls.

"What are these?" Julius asked, walking up to a glass covered display of some kind. "This one says: _American High Football Champions_. This one says: _American High Soccer Champions_ … Tonya, what's a _soccer_?"

"I don't know." She replied, also looking at the objects inside the case. "These flags are pre-war, but I think these are some kind of commutative memorials, like… like how the NCR puts the faces of their Presidents on their money."

Maybe that was the case, maybe it wasn't, but now there was no more time to debate as the last feature of the room, a television screen, suddenly came to life. Like most of these devices that the Courier had seen, it showed nothing but white static at first, but then a black and white image appeared, showing another room. There was nothing remarkable about the room itself, except for the fact that there was another floating brain tank there, looking out through the screen while a woman behind him… one who looked a lot like Lieutenant Layla, pounded her fists against some kind of glowing field.

" _Good morning, students_." The brain tank said happily, moving closer to the screen. " _This is the voice of your supreme leader and Principal… Dr. Principal Borous. Make no mistake; although I was once a mere student of this hated institution, myself, I am now its omnipotent God-Principal, but as long as you bow before me as your true lord…_

" _Let me out of here, you freak_!" Layla yelled, still hitting the force field. " _Someone get me out of here_!"

The brain tank, now identified as Dr. Borous, excused himself from the screen for a moment, before turning back toward the Lieutenant, causing her to cry out and jump around as an electrical current was ran through the floor where she was standing. For several seconds Layla jumped and danced around, with sparks flying at her feet, but then it all stopped, and she fell to her hands and knees.

" _It pains me to do this to you, Betsy_." The brain tank said, almost sadly. " _But it's your own fault for turning me down for the school dance, just so that you could go and smoke with Richie Marcus. Well, who's laughing now, Betsy? Who_?!"

" _For the last… fucking time_!" The Lieutenant yelled, trying to catch her breath. " _I am not Betsy Bright, I don't even know who she or this Richie Marcus are_!"

The electrical current started again, making Layla scream as she flopped around on the floor like a fish. Now, Tonya didn't exactly _like_ the Lieutenant, especially since she had stolen her truck and left her in the middle of nowhere to die, but on the other hand, the Courier couldn't just _let_ someone get tortured like that. On the screen, Dr. Borous was floating around the force field cage, singing something about _Betsy and Richie sitting in a tree_ , or something like that, but Tonya was no longer watching, instead moving down the nearest hallway trying to find where the brain tank was broadcasting from.

Deciding to head off to the right, she and Julius went down a hallway that was even more packed with lockers on both walls, and then into an even bigger room that was filled with double-stacked bookshelves. This room had some posters on the walls, but not the pre-war ones that the Courier had seen all over the Mojave, but ones that were more like the propaganda that the NCR and Caesar's Legion used against each other, starting with one that had a picture of a finger up to a pair of lips, with a caption that read:

 _THIS IS THE LIBRARY_

 _BE QUIET AND FULL OF SHHHH_

There was another one next to it with the top consisting of a bunch of stars around the words _Capitalism Approved Texts Only at American High_ , while the bottom half was a bunch of red books being burned in a fire, with some flaming words that said _Place All Filthy Propaganda Texts of Communist Filth in The Incinerator_ followed by some handwritten words that read: _Especially ones with poorly drawn pictures of Me in them_. Then there was some movement up above, and the two of them looked up to see a kind of glowing blue barrier where the ceiling should have been… with the brain tank floating above it.

"Upstairs!" The Legionary exclaimed, rushing toward the far door. "Quick, find the stairs!"

Together, the two of them left the library, and made their way down another identical hallway, but so far there were no stairs to speak of, only another room where a whole bunch of tiny desks and chairs sat in rows in front of a much bigger desk. There was a chalkboard behind the big desk, with the words _Jocks Suck_ written in big white letters, and just as they entered the room, the television monitor mounted on the wall in the corner flickered to life.

" _Take your seats, students, class is about to begin_." Dr. Borous said, moving so close to the screen that only his mouth screen was visible. " _As for today's announcements, I am proud to announce that Cherie O'Bannon, our only straight A student, has once again been named Student of The Month. Are you jealous, Betsy? You should be, since Cherie is better than you… you, smoking under the bleachers with Richie Marcus… I'm glad you never came to my birthday party, I'm glad_!"

" _Help_!" Layla screamed, gasping and groaning as the electrical current in the floor started again. " _Help me, please! He's crazy, someone help me_!"

Now when the current stopped, the Lieutenant just huddled there in a ball on the floor, crying while the brain tank floated back over toward the screen, continuing with the announcements for the school… was that what this place was, some kind of school? The way it was designed, and with how the one in charge of it was acting, it seemed to Tonya that pre-war schools were more of a torture camp than a place of learning.

" _And finally, today the cafeteria will be serving… nothing_." Dr. Borous continued. " _Because I didn't build one, Richie… no cafeteria, no bathroom, no swirlies, no chocolate pudding left on the chairs of unsuspecting brilliant minds! So what are you gonna do, now, Richie Marcus?! What are you going to do_?!"

Again no longer watching the broadcast, the Courier and Julius continued on, moving through the empty halls and classrooms, until finally finding the stairs leading up. Layla was again being tortured with the electrical current when they reached the second floor, but everything stopped after the Legionary ran into the room, ordering the brain tank to stop what he was doing and let the Lieutenant go.

Surprisingly, Dr. Borous _did_ stop, cutting off the current to the holding cell, and angrily floating over to them while ranting something about how being out of class during instruction time required the most _serious_ of detentions… whatever those were. But then the brain tank stopped in his tracks, gasping after looking at Julius, and doing a quick scanning circle around him just like Dr. Dala had done while watching Fretwell dance.

" _I knew it_!" Dr. Borous loudly declared. " _Those bulging muscles, that perfect hair, that accented jawline… it's you… Richie Marcus! How dare you enter my high school after all those years of beating me up, and calling me Little Sissy Smarty Pants?! Jerk Jocks like you belong in the gym… I didn't build one, but I do have balls_!"

Suddenly a strange looking kind of catapult machine was lowered down from the ceiling, followed by a basketball dropping into the basket, and then it being launched through the air. _Wump!_ The catapulted basketball struck Julius in the side of the head, knocking the Legionary off his feet. _Wump! Wump!_ Two more basketballs were launched moments later, hitting him in the side, and then in the leg when he tried to get up, with still more being loaded.

"Dr. Borous, stop this!" Tonya yelled, waving to get his attention. "I've got a message for you from…

" _You stay out of this, Cherie_." The brain tank interrupted. " _You worry about your ballet lessons, and I'll worry about jocks… who like balls. Do you hear that, Betsy? Richie… likes balls!_ "

Not showing any signs of letting up the assault, Dr. Borous laughed as another ball was loaded, but this time Julius caught it in his hands, turned around, and tossed it right at the brain tank. _Wump!_ Dr. Borous let out a kind of startled shriek when the ball struck his mouth screen, making it lose vertical hold for a second, but then it cleared up, revealing that an angry scowl now filled the monitor.

" _You think you're so great, Richie_ … _with your muscles, and Betsy, and your friends_." The brain tank growled. " _Well, I might not have muscles, but I do have a Cyberdog… Richie Marcus, meet Gabe… MY best friend_!"

Suddenly a large section of the wall across the room slid open, allowing a very big figure to emerge… it was a dog, at least the front half was. The whole back half of the animal was metal and robotic, while its brain sat in a transparent tank full of gel like all the others, but… this dog… this angry, growling dog… was easily twice the size of a man.

" _Good dog, Gabe_." Dr. Borous said happily. " _Sic'em, boy_!"


	18. Chapter 18 A Brain's Best Friend

**Greetings from Big MT**

 **Chapter Eighteen: A Brain's Best Friend**

The giant, half-mechanical dog slowly walked out through the opening in the wall, and it slid shut as soon as it was cleared, leaving no chance for Tonya and Julius to somehow get the monstrosity back into its pen. Dr. Borous continued to float around the scene, momentarily forgetting about Lieutenant Layla, who was still pounding on the force field, while Gabe looked over Julius as if sizing him up.

Both of them were unarmed, so they were looking around the chamber for something that could have been used as a weapon, when the robotic dog opened its mouth, and let out a long, low, drawn out howl. As it howled, though, a large kind of transparent energy distortion was released, blowing the doors open and damaging the frame of every locker that it passed, and making the Legionary cry out when it threw him backwards.

Julius flew several feet before the wave passed him completely, allowing him to crash to the floor, only to continue rolling and sliding until he came to a stop at the edge of the stairs which he and the Courier had used to get up there in the first place. Now he was just kind of lying there on the floor, groaning, and clearly disoriented from that strange blast… and Tonya was about to rush over to help the Legionary, but was stopped when she felt warm breath on the back of her neck.

" _Aw, you like Cherie O'Bannon, don't you, Gabe_?" The brain tank asked as she turned around, finding that the dog's massive head was only inches from hers. " _Cherie's a good girl, not a filthy, sneak-smoking, communist, ball-lover like Betsy Bright and Richie Marcus. Now give Cherie a kiss, Gabe, that's a good dog_."

Before Tonya could do anything, the massive robotic dog leaned in and dragged its huge tongue up the side of her face, covering her with drool… and then the monstrosity walked right past her, toward where Julius was finally getting to his feet. Letting out a low growl as it approached, Gabe's footsteps became so heavy that its paws put small cracks in the floor, and as for the Legionary, he grabbed the only weapon that was in sight… one of the basketballs.

As ridiculous as this seemed, Julius pulled his arm back and tossed the ball at Gabe as hard as he could, but the rubber ball only bounced harmlessly off the monstrosity's brain case, making the robotic dog growl again. Picking up another ball, the Legionary tossed it again, but this time Gabe caught it in its mouth, and bit down, causing a loud _pop_ as the ball was deflated, leaving only one more ball available. So Julius picked it up and tossed it like the others, but this time the ball missed completely, flying back across the room… and Gabe chased it.

" _Gabe, no, what are you doing_?" Dr. Borous asked as the attack was abandoned while the dog fetched the ball. " _You're supposed to rip the commie-pinko to shreds, not play with his balls_."

"Dr. Borous, there really isn't time for this." Tonya argued, trying to get the brain's attention. "Dr. Klein sent me here to find you, and to tell you that you're needed back at the Think Tank at once… something about _Mobius_."

Now this finally got the brain tank's attention, causing everything, including Gabe who appeared to be bringing the ball back to Julius, to stop. The giant robotic dog was like a statue, not breathing or moving while Dr. Borous hovered back over to the Courier, no longer angry over… whatever his problem was with this _Richie Marcus_ character, but now genuinely afraid of what Mobius represented.

" _Cherie, I don't want you getting involved with the Think Tank or Mobius, for your own good_." The brain tank said with concern in his synthesized voice. " _Now, I've got to go save the world, but I want you to go straight home after you're done volunteering at the Tutoring Center tonight… oh, and don't worry about Richie Marcus… I'll have Gabe put him in DEATH-tention while I'm gone_."

Tonya had no idea what Dr. Borous was talking about, or why he had assigned new identities to herself, Julius, and Layla, but as long as he went back to Dr. Klein at the Think Tank, it didn't really matter. So after saying a brief goodbye to the others, the final member of the Think Tank flew upward, vanishing out a small skylight in the ceiling, but not before emitting some kind of signal that caused some momentary high-pitched feedback from the facility's intercom system.

" _Attention all students_." Dr. Borous' voice said, crackling like it was on a vinyl record. " _This is the pre-recorded voice of your pre-recorded Principal… Dr. Principal Borous. Students, it has come to my attention that some of you… seemingly… innocent children have been subverted by Communist Propaganda. Gabe… teach them the truth of Capitalist justice_."

Suddenly broken from its paralysis, the huge robotic dog dropped the basketball and howled another energy distortion at Julius, but this time the Legionary was able to duck down onto the stairs for cover. Unable to hit him with its weapon, the monstrosity growled and started running toward him, forcing Julius to retreat back toward the first floor. Tonya had hoped that the robotic dog's body was so big and clumsy that it would tumble down the stairs, but instead it gracefully negotiated the obstacle in order to pursue him down the halls.

At the moment there wasn't a lot that the Courier could do to help him, aside from searching for a better weapon while seeing the Legionary get chased into the library through the force field in the ceiling. Of course, there was nothing around, at least nothing that would have been any help against something like Gabe, so all she could do was watch as the robotic dog forced open the double doors that he had been trying to hold shut.

The chase continued, with Julius doing good for a while; diving across a table, and crawling through bookcases to keep from getting bitten. However, it was only a matter of time before the monstrosity howled another energy distortion that destroyed the bookcases, leaving the Legionary too disoriented to be able to run away or fight… while the robotic dog picked him up by the back of the shirt with its teeth.

Tonya had thought for sure that Gabe was going to kill Julius, but instead it simply carried him out of the library, back up the stairs, and over to the side panel of the force field where Layla was being held. With a howled energy distortion, that segment of the glowing barrier vanished while the Legionary was catapulted inside, where he crashed into the already imprisoned Lieutenant Layla. Only a couple seconds after the two of them were inside, the barrier regenerated, leaving the cage sealed while the robotic dog sat down in front of it like a guard.

" _Well done, Gabe_." Dr. Borous' voice said. " _If you're hearing this, then my sensors have detected that all Commie-pinko, ball-loving jocks, and their sneak-smoking girlfriends have been imprisoned… forever. Now be a good dog, Gabe, and watch them starve to death… that's a good boy, you watch them starve, and then you'll get an extra helping of your favorite Psycho-laced dog chow when I get back_."

"So… was this supposed to be some kind of _rescue_ attempt?" Layla asked after getting to her feet. "Thanks for the effort, Mrs. Phoenix, but I think we're worse off now than back in New Reno."

The Courier wanted to tell this little brat that them getting stuck inside the Big Mountain crater was all her fault for stealing her truck in the first place, as well as see the look on the Lieutenant's face when she found out that Tonya had successfully rescued _both_ of her teammates. However, Layla was right about their current situation… Gabe was an all-powerful monster, and the Courier was still unarmed, also without the help of Julius, who was looking even more disoriented than last time, as he sat up against the barrier wall.

Suddenly the huge robotic dog stood up, before walking away from its post at the force field, picking up one of the basketballs in its mouth. It then walked over to Tonya, dropped the ball at her feet, and licked her across the face once again. Now it just stood there, shaking happily as if wagging its non-existent tail, and it was then that the Courier had the almost funny realization that Gabe wanted her to play _fetch_ with him.

 _Holy shit, the dog thinks I'm really this Cherie O'… whatever person_ , she thought while slowly bending down and picking up the ball. So she tossed it across the room, and the whole area shook as the monstrosity chased after it, and then again when Gabe brought it back. As nice as it was to not be on the dog's hit list, the fact of playing fetch with it wasn't really helping the situation… or was it? Tossing the ball a second time so that she would have a chance to think, a plan had started to form in Tonya's mind by the time the huge robotic dog returned.

Aiming carefully, the Courier tossed the ball again, this time in a different direction so that it landed right on top of the force field cage… where Gabe didn't seem to be able to get to it, even at the dog's incredible size. It jumped a few times, whining a little while going around the cage, until finally howling an energy distortion at the glowing barriers. The side panel shut down, causing Layla and Julius, who were leaning on it, to fall outside the cage when it shut down, and the monstrosity ignored them while doing the same to the roof so that the ball will come down.

"Good boy, Gabe, good boy." Tonya said petting the dog while motioning for the others to get out of sight. "But it's time to go lay down for a while now, okay? Go lay down, Gabe, go on."

Licking her again, and making her have to once again wipe a lot of drool onto her sleeve, the huge robotic dog obeyed the Courier's commands, walking back over to the cage and not noticing that it was empty as it laid down in the same place that it had been guarding. Not wanting to waste this opportunity to escape, Tonya quietly followed Julius and Layla, who had already gone down the stairs, and then the three of them began running quickly toward the exit. Now that every member of the Think Tank had been found, maybe they would finally be able to leave the crater once and for all.


	19. Chapter 19 Essential Technology

**Greetings from Big MT**

 **Chapter Nineteen: Essential Technology**

"So, as you can see, Dr. Klein." Tonya said, standing in front of the completed Think Tank. "I have gathered _all_ of your colleagues, so that now you can deal with that Mobius person, and deactivate the radar fence, right?"

Upon leaving the X-8 Research Center, and returning to the great stone dome, the Courier was pleasantly surprised to find that, in addition to the recovery of Lieutenant Layla, Fretwell and Gleeson's trip over to the X-2 Broadcast Antenna Array had brought with it the discovery of Junior, the final member of the group that had escaped New Reno. According to him, he had been trying to use the antenna to contact the rest of them… unsuccessfully, by the sound of it.

Either way, she was happy that the son of her late employer was safe, and after a hug followed by an update for him about what the rest of them had been going through, it was time to return to where they had last seen Dr. Klein and Dr. 8. Now that Dala, Borous, and O had been reunited for the cause of… whatever the hell these freaks had been doing since the bombs fell, there was really no reason for them to be held captive within Big Mountain… was there?

" _Yes, you… overly intelligent Lobotomite_." Dr. Klein's synthesized voice replied. " _You have done well uniting us, and now that our complete collective of, uh… collectiveness is complete, uh… it is only a matter of time before we deal with Mobius one and for all_. _Yes… yes, that is what we will do_."

Now a new feeling was beginning to build up inside Tonya… one of disappointment due to the fact that these floating brain tanks didn't seem to have any sort of plan for dealing with what they felt was a dire threat. But then, what had been the point of bringing them all back together? It was starting to sound like she would have been better off just searching for her missing friends, but then the Courier had to cover her ears when Dr. 8 floated forward to make a statement.

Just like before, his speech was nothing but white noise and electronic noises, but behind the jumbled, head-splitting nonsense, there were words. Unable to hear every syllable, Tonya was able to make out _'the suit is dire'_ along with _'only possible path for success'_ before Dr. Klein groaned as if realizing that he had forgotten something important. Quickly calling in the other brain tanks for a huddle, the five of them huddled closely so that none of the humans could hear them, and they chatted for a while, before all five took a suspiciously long look at the group.

Then all of them smiled slyly, turning slightly toward each other and moving their mouth and eye screens up and down as if in agreement of something, and Dr. 8 appeared to be giggling while Dr. Klein came up to address her again. The others quickly shushed him, which wasn't _suspicious_ at all… nope, not a bit… of course, everything these brain tanks did was suspicious as hell, so there was no way to know whether or not it was just more of the same.

" _Greetings, Lobotomite, take heed now as I address you… with my words_." Dr. Klein said, eyed widened while using a serious tone that was… odd. " _You are required to travel a vast distance across the Big Mountain crater, to retrieve the most sacred of technology_."

" _Don't talk so fast, Klein, you're confusing it_." Dr. O interrupted, hovering in front of him. " _You, Lobotomite, go to the X-13 Research Facility due east… no, west, and retrieve the essential technology. You understand, essential? It's so essential, that the essential essentialness of the essential technology, is quite essential_."

"Holy fucking Jesus." Lieutenant Layla said in disbelief. " _These_ are the ones who've been leading you around? You and your _boyfriend_ can stay here if you want, but _we're_ out of here. Fretwell, Gleeson, let's go… we'll find our own way past the radar fence."

Gleeson started to protest, but the Lieutenant quickly shut her down, reminding her that both Julius and the Courier were both technically part of the Legion, before pulling the brunette Trooper along by the forearm. Gleeson kept looking back as if she wanted to stay there with them, but at least Junior was staying… wait, where was Junior? Oh, there he was, deserting the Courier to run off with the NCR Troopers for a second time, and just kind of shrugging at her before the four of them walked out the door.

" _I wonder where they think they're going_?" Dr. Dala asked, floating over in front of the group. " _There's no way past the radar fence, and… my little teddy bear seemed so delicate before. Oh well, at least I still get to spend time with Vera Keyes_?"

" _What are you talking about, Dala? That's Cherie O'Bannon_." Dr. Borous replied, bumping her out of the way to take a closer look. " _What?! Oh, my God… you mean to tell me that sweet little Cherie O'Bannon grew up to become Vera Keyes?! I went to high school with Vera Keyes?! All right, Cherie, I respect you as a friend, but if anyone asks, I'm going to tell them that you and I made out under the bleachers during Sophomore Year_."

"Uh… that's _great_ , Dr. Borous." Tonya said, feeling like every moment in this place was a direct assault on her sanity. "So, you need me and Julius to go to X-13 and recover… what, exactly?"

All of the brain tanks started talking over each other now, each describing what she was supposed to go get in different ways, but once the Courier was able to start deciphering the actual words through their nonsense, it became clear that the essential technology they were after was some kind of suit. Beyond that, it could have been anything from a set of old formal wear to some high-tech power armor that could be used to battle Mobius… but that was it, a vague description and location.

"It's more than you had when you started, Tonya." Julius said when her frustration was reaching its boiling point. "Come on… let's go find… whatever it is, together."

The Legionary gave her a half smile while putting his hand on her shoulder, causing the Courier's frustration to fade away to the point where she could barely hear the continued bickering and overlapping words of the Think Tank. Yeah, she thought, there was no point in staying inside the dome any longer until this _suit_ was found, so the two of them followed the example of Layla and the others, by walking out of the room. Outside it was still snowing and cold, with the sun reaching its high point for the day, but it was better than staying in there with the brain tanks.

"Tonya, I don't want to scare you or anything." He said, stopping her once the doors to the dome closed. "But I don't think those… _machines_ in there know what they're doing, and… we might need to find our own way out of here if this whole _suit_ thing doesn't work out."

"I thought the same thing, Julius." She replied, pointing off in the distance to the towers of the radar fence. "But those towers go _all the way_ around the crater, and I just… I just don't see how we can get past them without Dr. Klein and the others… unless you've got a _nuclear bomb_ you haven't told me about."

Both of them laughed at this for a few seconds, but then the wind kicked up, blowing snow into their faces. Dark clouds were gathering in the sky, only noticeable now since the sun was so bright before, and in the winter time that meant more snow… a lot of it. This also meant more wind, which would only get worse as the dark clouds approached, so Tonya took Julius by the hand, and started running toward the west.

Dr. O had said that the X-13 Facility was to the west… of course, he had also said that it was due east at first, so it didn't really matter which way they went. The only real lead that the Courier had as to where X-13 was, was that it wasn't anywhere around the part of the crater that they had already explored, so the two of them just kept running until they entered what looked an area that had never bene finished, when her progress was suddenly stopped when the Legionary grabbed her.

Lifting Tonya nearly off her feet, and forcing her up against a partially completed cinderblock wall, she found herself suddenly frightened of him, eyes wide and her body starting to shake when he put his hand over her mouth… but then became confused when he leaned closer and said _shhhh_. The Legionary had pressed himself up against her as tightly as he could, looking just around the nearby corner, but then ducking back just as the Courier started to hear footsteps.

Neither of them were moving, and Julius was still looking around the corner, making her slide farther along the wall so that they could stay out of sight… and that's when she saw it. If his hand hadn't been there, Tonya might have screamed when she saw the grinning skull inside of the red spacesuit slowly walking in the direction which they had come… and continuing to do so. It didn't appear to be armed this time, since she had stolen its weapon long ago… and then lost it, but it hadn't detected her, either… making the Courier thankful that he had been there… so thankful that she hugged him as soon as he let go of her.

"That was him!" She whispered urgently. "That's the ghost of Captain Cosmos!"

After nearly being killed by the red figure before, she was in no hurry to face it a second time, so the two of them took the long way around, moving through the construction zone as indirectly as possible; crawling underneath pre-war vehicles, ducking around walls, and staying under whatever cover they could find, making it less likely that Captain Cosmos would see them and double back… even though he was probably long gone by…

Suddenly there was movement… very _red_ movement just as they were taking the long way around another pre-war truck, the red figure coming out of nowhere as it shoved Julius out of the way hard enough to knock the Legionary off his feet. Apparently their attempts to be stealthy and unseen had failed, with their pursuer taking the direct route back to catch up with them, and now coming right toward her.

The only kind of weapons nearby were the loose cinderblocks scattered nearby, so the Courier backed up from the red figure until one of them was within reach, and bent down to pick it up. Heavier than the standard rock, and more awkward to hold, Tonya succeeded in lifting it over her head, and tossing it at her pursuer as hard as she could… cracking the transparent helmet when it connected with a hard _whack_ , but doing little else. Certainly not enough to stop _Captain Cosmos_ from wrapping its hands around her throat when she backed up into another unfinished wall… and starting to squeeze.


	20. Chapter 20 Facility X-13

**Greetings from Big MT**

 **Chapter Twenty: Facility X-13**

She tried to break the red figure's grip, first by prying at its rubber and plastic fingers, and then slamming her fists down onto its inner elbows, but Tonya just wasn't strong enough. So she lifted one leg up, pressing her foot against the plate on its suit that said _Trauma Override_ , and pushing as hard as she could. One leg apparently wasn't enough, so the Courier lifted up her other one as well, now being held off of the ground by the red figure, while trying to push it backwards with both feet.

Unfortunately, the ghost of Captain Cosmos was far stronger than she was, and the grip around her neck was making it impossible to breathe, at least until Julius came up from behind. _Whack!_ Striking her attacker in the side of the transparent helmet with a discarded metal pipe as if it were a baseball bat, the Legionary succeeded in drawing its attention away from Tonya, allowing her to fall onto the snow, gasping for breath while it now went after him in the same way.

Ducking down underneath the red figure's arm when it tried to grab him, Julius came back up with a hard swing that put another small crack in the front of its helmet, staggering the attacker, and seeming to confuse it for a second. _Whack! Whack! Whack!_ Not allowing it the chance to recover, the Legionary kept advancing, putting more and bigger cracks into the thing's helmet with each blow of the pipe that landed… and then the whole thing shattered.

The transparent material blew apart into a dozen pieces that fell down among the snow as if they were ice, and with Julius's final swing of the weapon, the bleached-white skull that the suit had been protecting was knocked free; teeth and part of the cheek breaking apart while it was sent rolling across the construction area, where it finally vanished into a snowbank. A smile now formed across the Legionary's face, since he had defeated such a powerful enemy, right in front of the woman he was trying to impress as a bonus, but then the smile faded when he saw that the ghost of Captain Cosmos… was still on its feet.

"What the…" He stammered for a moment in disbelief. "How… what?"

Suddenly the red figure advanced, even without a head, so he swung the pipe, only to be stopped when the attacker caught it in its hand. Quickly ripping the pipe out of Julius's hands, and swinging it around to knock his feet out from under him, the red figure raised the weapon to stab him, but was stopped when Tonya tackled it from behind. Her weight and force wasn't enough to knock it over, but it did cause the pipe to stab into the snow instead of the Legionary's chest… and that was about it.

Reaching up with its free hand, the headless attacker grabbed her by the shirt, and tossed the Courier onto the ground, next raising its leg and pressing its large foot down onto her chest before she could move. First pushing the air from her lungs, and then making it so she couldn't pull in any more, the red figure just kept pressing, with Tonya unable to push its foot back no matter how hard she tried.

If any more pressure had been applied to her ribs, they probably would have broken, but thankfully Julius wasn't out of the fight just yet. Picking up a large, long forgotten sandbag, the Legionary started swinging it around over the top of his head as he ran toward them, and the force when it slammed into the side of the red figure was enough to not only free Tonya, but also knock the ghost of Captain Cosmos off its feet. Continuing to swing the bag around, Julius struck their attacker a second time in the back as it was getting up, causing it to dive right into a pit full of rebar.

"Come on!" The Legionary exclaimed, dropping the bag and pulling Tonya up by her hand. "Before that _thing_ recovers again!"

Breathing was still difficult for her, but the Courier tried her best to keep up with him as he once again pulled her along through the snow. Much like X-8, there they had found Dr. Borous, the X-13 Research Facility was huge, with its tall smokestack proudly bearing its designation, visible from a great distance away. So far the red figure hadn't been able to come after them again, but that didn't mean that it was safe to stop running… at least not until they were safe inside the facility.

The stone stairs leading up to the entrance were slippery with snow and slush, forcing the two of them to slow down, but soon the door was pushed open, and slammed shut behind them, leaving the red figure to once again wander around aimlessly. As long as it hadn't seen where they had gone… if it could even _see_ without a head… then there was no danger, at least from the ghost of Captain Cosmos… but who even _knew_ what kind of awful pre-war hell was waiting for them inside X-13?

"Tonya, are you all right?" Julius asked, putting his hands on her shoulders as they both caught their breath. "Did it hurt you?"

"No… I'm fine." Tonya replied, coughing a little from the pain in her ribs. "I just need a minute… just a minute to catch… my breath."

While she was talking, one of the Legionary's hands moved up from her shoulder, across her neck, and then slowly pulling her toward him until their lips touched. The Courier didn't resist at all this time as he kissed her, and now found herself starting to kiss back as it became more passionate. His arms slowly slid around her waist while hers went around his neck, allowing him to lift her slightly off the ground until the need for air forced their lips to finally separate.

It wasn't as warm in this place as it had been inside of the other facilities, allowing Tonya to see her breath, rapid as it was, mostly due to how quickly her heart was beating. Thankfully, there didn't seem to be any immediate threats down the first hallway of this freezing, metal installation, not just because the dim lighting made it difficult to see… but because right now it was impossible for her to think about anything besides how… _amazing_ … of a kisser Julius was.

"I want you to be my woman, Tonya." He said, leaning in and kissing her on the side of the neck while setting her back down, but not letting go. "I know you're worried about Aurelius, the Legion, and about what the NCR would think, but… what if we ran away together? Caesar once told me there were reports of settlements to the east, _far_ beyond Arizona, and I don't know if it's true, but I would risk it for us to have a future together."

"You would… really leave the Legion behind… for me?" Tonya asked, her heart beating just as rapidly. "Julius, do you really care for me enough to throw your whole life away?"

So many years had passed since a man had genuinely cared for her in that way, that the Courier started to cry as the two of them began kissing once again, and she was just glad that there were no more brain tanks or New Reno survivors wandering around to see what happened next. Yes, she had started out wanting to kill him for everything that happened to her home, and… honestly, being held up with her back against the cold wall of the X-13 Facility was _not_ her typical idea of romance… but it was better than anything else she had experienced in the last few years.

Yes, she enjoyed herself immensely, as did Julius… but then once everything was finished… the traditional period of awkward silence followed. The Courier hated this part of being with someone for the first time, but at least the Legionary didn't immediately walk away after getting what he wanted… which was the other thing she had been fearing. No, he was still there, smiling nervously as they got dressed… and then Tonya remembered why they had come to this place.

"I wish we didn't have to stop." She said, looking dreadfully at the darkened hallway. "But we really need to find that suit, or whatever, so we can get out of this place."

"I know, Tonya, I know." He replied, giving her another kiss. "I meant what I said, though… after we get out of Big Mountain, we can run away together… but, I know, the mission has to come first."

She was glad that he understood the importance of helping the Think Tank defeat Mobius so that they could escape… not to mention retrieve her original heart, spine, and brain… if they even _could_ be salvaged at this point. For a moment the Courier's thoughts were interrupted when Julius gave her a swat on the rear as soon as she turned around. Normally, she would have been angry after a man did that to her, but in this case… well, he had recently swatted her _a lot_ harder than that, without complaints, so she just smiled a bit before they had to continue on.

This place must have been more seldom used than the other places that they had explored, because only a few of the lights were working, not counting the ones that flickered rapidly as they moved down the narrow hallway, and parts of the walls and ceilings had collapsed as well. This allowed for some of the wind and snow from outside to blow right in, creating small snowdrifts in the corners of the hall, and the nearby side rooms, many of which had collapsed completely.

"So, how will we know it when we see it?" Julius asked as they passed another collapsed room. "Did the brains say anything else at all?"

"No, they didn't." Tonya replied, starting to worry that whatever they had come to find might have been destroyed already. "I don't think even they completely know, but… hey, _that_ looks promising."

The next room that they came to was almost completely intact, complete with tables, old unreadable papers scattered across the floor… and a diagram drawn on a chalkboard, labeled _Stealth Suit Mk II_. It was beautifully drawn, showing a kind of light armor-weave that was clearly designed for women, based on how it fit over the curves of the model, but instead of the suit itself being in the room, there was an old note hanging on the mannequin that must have once held it.

 _Sorry Dr. Klein, I know you don't want anyone touching the suit until you boys all have the chance to see how hot it looks on Dr. Dala, but you big-wigs aren't the only ones in Big Mountain who want to have fun. So I'm putting on the suit, and going down into the testing area to see just how sneaky this suit it… against robots._

 _Sorry for stealing your thunder, but you can punish me later. Love Roxie._

"Somehow, I just knew this wasn't going to be easy." Tonya said, suddenly building a hatred for this _Roxie_ person. "All right, Julius, let's head down into the testing area… because places like that are _never_ dangerous."


	21. Chapter 21 Stealth Suit Mk II

**Greetings from Big MT**

 **Chapter Twenty One: Stealth Suit Mk II**

The X-13 Facility was in even worse shape the farther Tonya and Julius explored; nothing but broken, ancient looking computers and monitoring equipment spaced out across a long series of walkways that overlooked a lower level. Exposed to the elements for who even knew how long, the rust-covered machinery looked to be even older than pre-war times, and there were so many parts of the walls and ceilings that had caved in, that there was hardly anywhere to go.

Eventually the two of them found a mostly intact stairwell, and since the suit that they were supposed to retrieve was supposed to have been taken down into the testing area, the Courier headed down the stairs while being guarded by Julius, who had ripped off another broken piece of pipe to be used as a weapon. It occurred to her that the explorations of Big Mountain might not have been so bad if she were able to be properly armed for more than thirty seconds at a time, but hopefully they would not be trapped inside this pre-war hell for much longer.

"This place looks kind of like an old office building." The Legionary commented once they reached the bottom of the stairs. "They sure had weird ways of building things back before the bombs fell, huh?"

Well, he wasn't wrong; this place really did look like a mostly intact floor of an old office building, with the reception desk, fluorescent light fixtures, and rows of filing cabinets that could be seen behind a nearby hole in the wall. There were robots, too… looking like old, rusted, broken down versions of Superego, but with broken and empty brain tanks. Except for the noise made by the two of them, nothing was moving or really doing anything at all inside of the facility, which was a welcome change.

No monsters, no killer robots, no Lobotomites, no nothing… just an empty, silent facility that looked to be about a week away from total physical collapse. With every room they explored, the bathrooms with overflowing toilets, the storage rooms with the collapsed ceilings, Tonya became more and more afraid that the stealth suit had been buried underneath the rubble, or otherwise destroyed, but then they passed through the double doors of a large office…

"Hey, Tonya, what's that?" Julius asked, pointing at the floor next to the large desk. "Is that a… pre-war prisoner's uniform? Did these people use convicts for test subjects before the bombs fell?"

Around the back of the overly large desk, there was a skeleton lying on the floor, its skull having been crushed underneath a collapsing beam. This was a scene that had been repeated dozens of times in the Courier's life during the exploration of pre-war buildings, but it was what the skeleton was _wearing_ that caught her attention. There was a black and white striped body-suit covering the majority of the bones, but the striped went up and down instead of side to side like the old prisoner outfits.

"I think… I think this might be it." She commented, looking down at the skeleton. "So… am I supposed to just bring it back to the Think Tank, or do I have to, you know… wear it?"

The Legionary just shrugged, but seeing as a suit like that would be of no use to a bunch of floating brains, it was pretty obvious that she was supposed to wear it. Tonya had taken the clothes from dead people before, usually only out of necessity, but it never really felt like the right thing to do. It was different if she was stealing from Raiders, or someone else trying to hurt her, but… oh well, at least the suit came off the bones easily… mostly because they broke apart during the process.

After shaking the last of the bones out of it, the Courier took another look at the suit, which didn't look like anything special at all, before starting to remove her clothes in order to put it on. For a moment she thought about telling Julius to turn around, but considering that they had just had sex upstairs not a half hour before, there was really no point in trying to show modesty at this point. So she undressed, smiling and blushing a little when he whistled at her in approval, but then the smile faded when she tried to get the thing on.

Tonya was a slender girl, always had been, but this suit was _so… damn… tight_ that it was almost like trying to put on a second skin. The whole thing was a single piece that was put on by stretching open the top and stepping inside, but even with sucking in her stomach, and having the Legionary help her, it was more like the damn thing had been made for a twelve year old. This made no since, due to the fact that the skeleton had been adult sized, but still she struggled inch… by… inch until the collar snapped into place around her neck, stinging a little.

"Shit, no _wonder_ it wasn't built for men." She groaned, trying to adjust the area around her thighs. "How could anyone even…

Suddenly the Courier's words were stopped as an almost painful tingling sensation passed through her entire body, making her gasp and stand up straight while the whole suit she was wearing felt like the material was shifting somehow. Julius was heard asking her if she was okay, but the tingling sensation, which almost felt _electrical_ , was making it difficult to reply, but then it suddenly stopped.

" _Reinitialization and resizing complete_." A synthesized female voice said, startling her. " _Stealth Suit Mk II is now online and ready to serve you, Rox… wait a moment, you are not Roxie. Please identify yourself_."

"I'm uh… Tonya… Tonya Greene." The Courier replied nervously, several seconds later after figuring out that it was the _suit_ itself that was speaking to her. "I came to get the suit, uh… you, that is, so I could take you back to Dr. Klein."

Not sure what to expect if the suit, which would have been nice to have been told that it was an artificial intelligence, rejected her attempts to use it, but thankfully it didn't try to hurt her, nor did it try to expel her from it in any way. The temperature was still cold, though, and the stealth suit didn't offer much in the way of insulation, so she decided to put her regular clothes back on over it.

" _My sensors show that… a very long time has passed since my last use_." The suit explained as she finished getting dressed. " _I cannot wait to get back to the dome again after so long, and do not worry, I am more than confident that I can help you avoid the creature that it hunting you at this very moment_."

"What did she just say?" Julius asked, clearly startled. "Something's _after_ you?"

Just as startled by this revelation as he was, the Courier looked around in all directions, through the holes in the walls, and also out the double doors into the mostly intact hallway outside of the office. There was nothing in sight, though, nor could anything be heard moving around when they both went so far as to hold their breaths in order to listen. Wanting to make sure that the suit hadn't made a mistake, she asked it to rescan… or whatever it had done to detect it.

" _Yes, Tonya, you are being actively tracked by a hostile creature_." The suit replied after taking a moment to rescan. " _Not only that, but it is getting closer; I suggest that you vacate this facility at once_."

"Good idea." She replied, stepping out through the door. "Come on, Julius, let's get out of here."

Starting back down the damaged hallway, toward the stairwell, the two of them stayed crouched down, moving as silently as they could in order to hear the hunter, but there was still nothing moving or making noise… that it, until just before they reached the stairwell… and the now headless red figure walked out into view. Stopping for a moment, and then turning its whole body to slowly face the two of them.

"Aw, crap." Was the only thing she could manage to say as they started stepping backwards. "What are we gonna do?"

"There's gotta be something pre-war in here that can help us." The Legionary replied, raising up his metal bar while they backed up. "I'll hold it off, while you go and find… whatever that is."

Tonya didn't like the idea of leaving him to face the ghost of Captain Cosmos alone, but unarmed she was useless against it, so the Courier ducked down, passing through a hole in the wall into another section of the testing area, just in time to hear the first impact of his weapon against its frame. This thing was relentless, and just as hard to take down as the green eyed figure she had faced back at the Sierra Madre, so she moved faster, searching from room to room for anything that could be used to help him.

"Okay, suit, I need some ideas." She said, moving around a few broken robots. "Was there ever anything kept down here that could help us fight off that red thing?"

" _Negative, the Y-17 Trauma Override Harness is designed to be impervious to most damage_." The suit replied. " _I recommend instead that you change your current course, since you are headed right toward the creature that is hunting you_."

Tonya was barely able to register the words that the suit was saying, especially since they made no sense, unless… unless the red figure _wasn't_ the creature that it was referring to. No more time to get away, though, as one of the motionless robots suddenly came to life, painfully grabbing her wrist with its clawed appendage, and then pulling her right up against its frame… which was not rusty at all, and still held a brain inside of its dome.

" _There you are, you little trollup_." Superego said with an irritated tone, grabbing her other wrist and pinning them to her sides. " _I knew you would come for the suit eventually, so I just waited for a bit after getting my dome fixed, and here you are… could've gone without having to hear you moaning like the whore you are, though_."

The Courier fought to get free, but the brain robot was too strong, easily restraining her while rolling forward on its treads. It had also lifted her a couple inches off the floor for easy transport, and was not even distracted by the hard kicks that Tonya gave to its mid-section as it carried her back down a hallway, and back to the stairwell, where Julius was struggling to fight off the red figure. He was holding his own, but the _ghost_ was adapting as it had done before, meaning that the Legionary had to use all of his skills just to hold it off.

"Wait… Superego, wait, _please_." She exclaimed, realizing that the brain robot was carrying her right toward the stairs. "You can't leave Julius here with that thing, _no one_ can beat it alone."

" _And why should I interfere, hmm_?" Superego asked, not stopping no matter how hard Tonya kicked and struggled. " _You want me to save him so that you can spread your legs for him again, is that it? Did you like being bent over by yet another member of the Legion, you two-cap prostitute… or were you on your back_? _You make me so sick_."

A moment later the brain robot carried her into the stairwell, and began to slowly scale the stairs with its treads, no matter how hard the Courier struggled. This meant that Julius was going to have to face the red figure alone… while Superego carried her off to… who even _knew_ where?


	22. Chapter 22 Crashing the Gates

**Greetings from Big MT**

 **Chapter Twenty Two: Crashing the Gates**

Helpless to do anything but squirm a little while kicking her legs uselessly against Superego's metal frame, Tonya was slowly carried back the way she had come in, while Julius was left to defend himself against the red figure. The last she saw of the Legionary, he was diving across a fallen set of filing cabinets to escape the pursuing Trauma Suit, but then the brain robot carried her back into the stairwell leading up to the observation area.

" _All of your current efforts are proving ineffective_." The stealth suit commented as they shook back and forth on each step that the robot ascended. " _You're really not good at staying out of sight, are you_?"

"Thank you _so_ much for that." The Courier replied, still unable to free herself. "No wonder the last person who wore you got killed."

" _Silence, both of you_." Superego ordered as they reached the top of the staircase. " _I may have orders not to kill you this time, Tonya, but you would be both shocked and amazed to find out what the human body can survive_."

The brain robot continued on toward the exit of the facility, stopping only long enough to open the door, and then starting out across the slushy snow. As much as she wanted to keep struggling, Tonya was getting too tired to do so by this point, and now Superego just continued on. Ignoring several facilities that looked like they could have been functional, the brain robot just kept going and going, as if planning to circle the entire crater.

The buildings and suspended pipelines between them were much larger on this side of the crater, sort of like the differences in a ruined city where a bunch of houses are on one side and the old factories are on the other. Slightly warmer, too, probably due to the constant smoke coming out of the dozens of exhaust ports that were scattered across the ground. There were also railroad tracks, just high enough to not yet be covered by the falling snow, but not only that, they were… they were _operational_?

With an incredibly loud whistle, a large and very old looking pre-war train came rushing around the curve, and right across the direction the brain robot was taking her, forcing Superego to halt her progress, at least for a moment. The ground was vibrating as the ten-car vehicle came flying past at speeds that the Courier would never have imagined such an old thing could do, it's whistle making her wish that she could have covered her ears… but then she forgot all about them when she looked into the windows.

Tonya only saw them for a second when the lead car passed, but it was long enough for her to get one clear look at the four inhabitants. First she saw Lieutenant Layla, giving her the finger as the train flew off to… wherever in the hell they thought they were going, and then there was Corporal Fretwell, looking more relieved than anything as he sat, unmoving, in his chosen seat. As for Private Gleeson, she had both hands on the window, looking out at the Courier desperately, as if she actually wanted to stop for her… and then there was the driver.

"Junior?" She asked in disbelief. "Junior's leaving me behind, too?"

" _If you ask me, you shouldn't be surprised_." Superego commented as the last car passed, clearing the way again. " _After all, you always were a shit judge of character, and it's not like you were screwing him, so why would he want to help you_?"

"What do you know, anyway, you stupid… _robot bitch_?" The Courier hissed, having long had enough of the brain robot's mouth, or whatever she spoke through. "You're nothing but a brain in a tank, and… and where are they going?"

Letting her words trail off as the train continued to pick up speed as it approached the end of the tracks, a section of the crater wall that might have once been a tunnel that had collapsed, leaving a barrier of rocks… that the train didn't appear to be aware of. _CRASH!_ With an impact so hard that Superego nearly fell over from the ground shaking, the train not only plowed right into the collapsed rocks… but it kept going.

There was sparks and black smoke, along with metallic banging and scratching as the train continued onward as if a battering ram… and then it was gone. It was gone, and… and through the cleared out darkness of the tunnel, there was light. Although the long train went off the rails and fell over sideways, sliding out of view, the tunnel was open, meaning that… oh, my God, Tonya thought as her heart jumped up into her throat… there was a way out of the crater!

"Let me go!" She screamed, kicking the brain robot's frame several times with renewed vigor. "God damn it, you stupid robot, let me go!"

" _Why, so you can continue to bring death and destruction wherever you go_?" Superego asked as she resumed her course. " _New Reno was all your fault, you know, so were the deaths of your team back at the Sierra Madre. You're such a selfish whore that you didn't even look back after leaving Elijah down there in the vault to starve to death, did you_?"

The Courier was about to reply, but then she stopped, realizing that there was no way for this machine to have known about that. Out of everything that had happened to her at the Sierra Madre, nearly getting killed, starting to fall for Christine, and even getting drugged and raped by Dean Domino… the only thing that she had never told _anyone_ , not even Dr. Orderly, was the fact that she had left Elijah, the mastermind behind the whole heist, locked inside the vault to die.

So how could Superego know that? She wasn't a member of the Think Tank, and she hadn't run any scans of her mind, at least as far as she could tell, so how could this pre-war relic have known _anything_ about her in the first place? She was nothing but a brain in a tank that was mounted onto an annoyingly powerful robot, but the things that she kept saying, they were mostly true, no matter how hurtful and insulting, so how could…

Suddenly the Courier had a thought that was just… stupid. For a moment, only a _single_ moment, given how fresh and new the robot's brain looked inside the tank, Tonya thought that the brain powering Superego might have been her own. That was ridiculous, though, simply because her own brain would have no reason for treating her like this one had been doing… all right, there was _one_ way to make sure.

"All right, Superego, if you're so _smart_ , then let's make a wager." The Courier suggested, continually looking toward the open tunnel. "I'm going to ask a question about myself, something that I never, _ever_ told anyone, all right? If you get it right, then I stay your prisoner, or whatever this is… but if you're wrong, you let me go immediately."

There was a chance that the brain robot wouldn't go for it, but surprisingly, Superego stopped in her tracks, and agreed to the challenge. All right, this was going to have to be a good one, something that Tonya had made a point to keep a secret, not that she wanted to reveal something like that to the brain robot, but as long as the machine didn't guess correctly, the actual answer would never have to be revealed.

"All right, Superego, here it is." She began. "When I was sixteen in New Reno, one of the Corsican sisters at the Golden Globes asked me to be a guest star in one of their _adult vids_. What were the _exact_ words that I said to turn her down?"

" _First of all, there is only 'one' Corsican at the Golden Globes, and he's a 'man', you lying trash_." The brain robot replied. " _You were 'fourteen' and desperate for caps after your mother died, so Mr. Corsican screwed you on his casting couch, and then blackmailed you to be in the vid for free under the oh so charming stage name of 'Lisa Lix'. That's why you joined the Mojave Express only a few months later, and left town_."

Holy shit, the brain inside Superego really _was_ her own. But how was it possible for her own brain to be treating her like this? How could it hate her so much when they were exactly the same? Without another word spoken between them, Superego resumed rolling across the crater, with Tonya desperate to get to the open tunnel… only to find that the tunnel was no longer open. In fact, there was now the same kind of blue energy field blocking the entrance to the recently opened tunnel that she had seen in other areas of Big Mountain… meaning that the escape route was no longer an option.

"Well, at least Gleeson and the others made it out." The Courier said, disheartened as they kept moving further away. "Where are you taking me, anyway?"

"As I said, I have instructions not to kill you this time." The brain robot replied. "But if you must know, I'm taking you over to the Forbidden Zone so that Dr. Mobius can do something awful to you… I can only hope."

 _Dr. Mobius!? The Forbidden Zone?!_ Tonya's first instinct was to try and get away again, but she stopped after realizing that it was pointless without some kind of weapon that worked on robots. Looking back the way they came, there was still no sign of Julius coming to the rescue, so he was probably still trying to fight off the red figure down in the facility…hopefully he was all right.

Oh well, even if she was still trapped inside the crater, the others had gotten away, and now they would be able to call the NCR for help. Well, even if Layla was enough of an asshole to leave her there to die, the Troopers still had to report discovering Big Mountain, itself, so maybe _someone_ would come to her aid. However, with Superego on a direct course toward a building that looked like a darker, more frightening version of the Think Tank, the Courier doubted that anyone would be able to help her at all as the darkened, domed building slowly got closer.


	23. Chapter 23 No Escape

**Greetings from Big MT**

 **Chapter Twenty Three: No Escape**

As far as Gleeson was concerned, the plan for getting them all out of the crater was stupid, especially the part where that Junior guy wanted to ram a train into a collapsed tunnel in an effort to clear it out. She wasn't an engineer or anything, but something about the whole idea just seemed off, not that Layla or Fretwell were picking up on it, since the two of them were so focused on getting out of Big Mountain, that they were willing to try anything.

Searching along the old railways for a while, eventually it was discovered that one of the pre-war cargo trains was still operational, so the Lieutenant ordered all of them to get in, and well, that was that. It was kind of surprising that Junior, the son of the guy who Tonya used to perform on stage for, had enough pre-war knowledge to operate such a vehicle, but somehow he did, and the brunette Trooper put her hands over her face as the train picked up speed, bracing herself for the inevitable…

 _CRASH!_ Plowing right into the entrance of the collapsed tunnel, it appeared that Junior had been right about it only being the entrance itself that had caved in, almost as if someone had been more concerned with people trying to leave, than more coming in. She was still thrown around the inside of the car, however, hitting the floor and then sliding back toward the seats when the train went off the rails, screeching its way along the rock wall of the rest of the tunnel before finally reaching daylight… and then sliding to a stop after completely tipping over onto its side.

It took a while for the dust to settle, and for everyone inside to get their bearings, with Gleeson having to lean heavily against the seat in order to remain standing because of the dizziness from smacking her head. Still, it appeared that they had made it; looking up at the windows that were where the roof should have been, it was clear that they had escaped from Big Mountain, and were finally free… she just wished that the Courier could have joined them.

"All right, let's get out of here." Layla groaned, starting to climb up the seat toward the windows. "Come on, one at a time."

The doors on both sides of the train car had been damaged to the point of being no longer usable, so the four of them helped each other up onto the sideways seats, and with a quick shattering of glass, they were able to climb up onto the outside of the train a few moments later. Behind them was the massive crater wall of Big Mountain, stretching up toward the sky just as it had been after New Reno, but ahead of them was a snow covered landscape that was dotted with boulders and…

 _Bang!_ There was a small spray of blood as Fretwell's head was violently rocked to the side, causing the Corporal to almost to a flip as he fell off of the train, and hitting the ground with a muffled _thud_ … and blood began to pour out from the large hole in his head while Gleeson spotted movement from… everywhere. Fretwell was clearly dead, but maybe he was the lucky one, she thought as men started coming out of hiding… armed men who were all wearing armor of the _Legion_.

"Drop anything you're carrying!" A familiar voice ordered as the men slowly closed in. "Climb down here slowly, and then get on your knees with your hands behind your heads!"

Gleeson felt another knot forming in her stomach as she saw that the voice belonged to Tonya's forced husband, Aurelius of Phoenix as he came forward with the rest of the Legionaries. This also prompted her to make a run back through the tunnel into Big Mountain, but this was no longer an option when she looked and saw that a glowing blue energy field had now formed over the recently cleared out entrance… trapping them outside.

Junior and both women were unarmed, thanks to conditions inside the crater, so they were left with no choice but to follow Aurelius's orders, and get on their knees after climbing down. Back in basic training, Gleeson had bene taught that in situations like this, it was important to not show fear, lest the enemy think her an easy target for interrogation… the Lieutenant was doing a decent job of this, but the brunette Trooper was terrified, especially after hearing everything that the Courier had told Dr. Orderly about the man.

"I take it you're _Junior_." Aurelius said, smirking a little. "I didn't think you could pull this off, but I _do_ like to be surprised on _occasion_ … where's my wife?"

" _Blondie_ over there kept interfering." Junior replied, pointing to Layla as he got to his feet. "I wanted us to all stay together, but apparently the NCR has something against her, and they wouldn't let Tonya join us… except for _Gleeson_ over there; she and your wife are friends."

Now, it took the brunette Trooper a few seconds to understand what was happening between the two men, but then suddenly it clicked, and she realized why Junior had been at the X-2 Transmitter Antenna Array… he hadn't been lost like he claimed when they found him there… he had been using it to talk to the Legion. He must have given Aurelius their location, and probably a whole lot of other Intel as well, but how could he have done this?

From what the Courier had told her, she and Junior were pretty close friends, on top of the fact that Aurelius had burned their city and killed the senior Mr. Mordino, so why was he helping them? With several dozen Legionaries pointing rifles at them, it was probably a bad idea to move or say anything, meaning that for now Junior would simply get away with this betrayal… while he and Aurelius shook hands.

"And what about my _other_ guests today?" The commander asked, moving in front of Layla as if he were inspecting cattle. "Anything interesting you want to share about your time in the crater, hmm? Junior says it's a pre-war treasure trove, so let's hear it."

"I'm Lieutenant Stephanie Layla of NCR Military Police." She replied calmly, as if the words were rehearsed. "Serial Number L15373, Date of Birth 7/15…

 _Whack!_ Clearly not interested in the details of her life, Aurelius backhanded the Lieutenant hard enough to knock her over sideways, hitting her head on some of the rocks since she was unable to move her arms back down in time to catch herself. After grumbling something about _not liking blondes anyway_ , the commander grabbed Layla by the hair, making her cry out as she was pulled to her feet, and then Aurelius knocked the wind out of her with a solid punch to the stomach… before pushing her into the arms of the two nearest Legionaries.

"If she doesn't want to talk, then she can _cry_." The commander said as they restrained her. "Give _Stephanie Layla_ thirty lashes, and then _every_ man here gets ten minutes with her to do as he pleases… and then put her on the cross."

Without hesitation the two guards took the Lieutenant away, vanishing from Gleeson's sight among the gathered Legionaries… and then making some of the color drain from the brunette Trooper's face when she heard the scream that came from the crack of that first lash. As for Gleeson, herself, she had been so frightened that she hadn't been able to move, well, except for shaking a little when Aurelius walked up to her.

"Another skinny brunette." He said, more lashes and screaming in the background as he looked her over. "So you're my wife's friend, are you? Tell me your name, and none of that NCR _bullshit_ , or you'll be joining _Stephanie_ over there."

"I… I'm Betty Gleeson." She replied, trying but failing to keep her voice from breaking. "And yes, I'm Tonya's, I mean your wife's friend."

"You don't have to worry about this one, Aurelius, she's a coward." Junior joined in, smirking a little as Layla started screaming for the others to stop. "Always following Tonya around like a scared little sister or something; she'll tell you _everything_ you want to know even…

With most of the Legionaries focused on what was being done to Layla, and the commander now looking back to listen to what Junior was saying, Gleeson was left unobserved for the moment. Wondering what Tonya would have done in this situation, the brunette Trooper quickly picked up a rock, and struck Aurelius over the head with it, before running away. Of course, where she could go, that, well… that didn't really matter as long as she got away from the Legion.

Too bad that even with the blow on the head that she had given him, the commander was able to give chase shortly after, but it was actually Junior that ended her escape by tackling her from the side. Even though the brunette Trooper wasn't considered one of the better Soldiers of the NCR, she still had enough training to stop him from pinning her down; giving Junior a quick chop to the throat, and then pushing him off with both feet on his stomach.

"Can it be?" Aurelius asked, stopping to watch their scuffle. " _Another_ Arizonian woman?"

Junior fell to the ground, gasping when Gleeson kicked him in the mouth so that she could get up and run away, but the commander stopped all this by simply grabbing onto the Brunette Trooper's wrist, and twisting it so that she couldn't move. There was awful pain whenever she tried, meaning that Gleeson was unable to defend herself when Junior got up and punched her in the face.

Catching her on the cheek just below her eye, the brunette Trooper's vision went white for a second, clearing up just in time to see the fist coming back at her a second time… which was stopped in a surprise turn of events when Aurelius kicked him in the chest, knocking him onto his back. The wind was knocked out of Junior, but he still managed to scramble to his feet, while the commander pulled Gleeson up against him for a closer look at her.

"Following Tonya like a _scared little sister_ , was it?" He asked, running his free hand through her hair before making her gasp when he gripped it hard. "You know, _Betty_ , Caesar has given me permission to seek out _all_ women of Arizonian blood… I'll have to make a note that all of you have black hair, with either green or blue eyes."

Three of the other Legionaries had ran over immediately after noticing what was happening with the prisoner, but after being motioned to stay back until after she had been recaptured, Aurelius snapped his fingers, now pointing his finger for the two guards to restrain… Junior. As an ally of the Legion, Junior was clearly surprised when he found himself being taken captive, struck repeatedly in the stomach and back when he resisted, and finally brought up to the commander.

"Junior, I've been doing some thinking." Aurelius said casually, pulling Gleeson closer to smell her hair. "My wife considers you a pretty close friend, yes? But what would she think when she found out that you betrayed her, _and_ struck her awkward little sister? Why, it would just _break her heart_ , that's what, and no one is allowed to hurt Tonya but _me_ … or Caesar, if he _really_ wanted to for some reason. Put this profligate on the cross."

Now it was Junior's turn to start screaming as the Legionaries took him away, with the only good part about this being that his screams were now drowning out the ones that were still being made by Layla as both sets of the commander's orders were being carried out. This left Gleeson all alone, involuntarily gasping as Aurelius pushed her back against the wall of the train car, and now wishing more than anything that she had stayed inside the crater with Tonya and Julius.


	24. Chapter 24 The Forbidden Zone

**Greetings from Big MT**

 **Chapter Twenty Four: The Forbidden Zone**

Admittedly, Tonya was nervous as hell about being carried to the entrance of the self-proclaimed _Forbidden Zone_ by Superego, but once the heavy doors slid open and they went inside, a lot of the nervousness faded away. This place was like a carbon copy of the Think Tank, matching it in design room by room, although not maintained nearly as well. Whereas the stone dome in the center of the crater was pristine and beautiful, this place looked like it had been abandoned even before the bombs fell.

The few lights that worked along the central hallway were flickering at different intervals, and everything was coated with a thick layer of dust, causing the brain robot's treads to leave tracks all the way through. The open chamber at the center, a mirror copy of the one inhabited by Dr. Klein and the others, was just as bad if not worse; dust and dirt covering everything, half of the monitoring equipment not functioning, and the lights flickering as if that were supposed to be part of a _theme_ or something.

Aside from the dirt, however, the floor was covered with what looked like chalk-drawn numbers and math equations that… made absolutely no sense to the Courier as she was carried into the center of the room, where another floating brain tank was hovering over near one of the non-functioning monitors. This one was in pretty rough shape, though; one of its maneuvering jets not firing, its brain case gel contaminated by what looked like slow a growing mold, and one of its eye screens had been smashed by something.

" _I brought the bitch here like you wanted, Dr. Mobius_." Superego said, dropping Tonya painfully on the ground. " _Next time I'll just blow off her legs so that she can't run away_."

" _That sounds like a very practical solution, Superego_." The brain tank replied, the lips moving on its mouth screen as it floated over. " _We can't have people missing their appointments, even though… I can't seem to remember sending for anyone today… she seems like a nice enough girl, though_."

Hold on a second, the Courier thought, slowly getting to her feet, _this_ was the evil Dr. Mobius? This half-functioning robot, working alone inside of a facility that looked like it was about to fall apart, was the reason that Dr. Klein and the other members of the Think Tank were terrified of their own shadows? When she had seen his broadcast, and seen how the other brain tanks reacted, Tonya had expected to find an enraged scientist at work on completing some kind of _Enclave_ level doomsday weapon… but not _this_.

" _You're_ Dr. Mobius?" She asked, still in disbelief. "The one who sent all those threatening broadcasts to Dr. Klein?"

" _What? Oh, that_." Dr. Mobius replied, chuckling a bit to himself. " _You see, sometimes I like to do a little Psycho in the morning to help get me started… and then a little more at lunch now and then. Boy, I must have been tripping pretty hard if I got on the old intercom system… heh… really wish I could remember doing that_."

" _Dr. Mobius isn't some maniacal terrorist, you ignorant slut_." Superego butted in. " _He's the one who saved me, as well as all the rest of your organs after Dr. Klein removed them_."

So it really was true… the brain that was encased within the robot that had been tormenting Tonya since their first encounter… was her own. Now that her eyes were getting used to the dim lighting, she could see some nearby storage tanks, stacked up together like a support pillar, with each one containing what at least _looked_ like a human organ. Yes, her missing heart and spine were on display, suspended inside some liquid like the brain tanks' gel, while a small stream of bubbles came up from the bottom.

Dr. Mobius, meanwhile, was kind of humming to himself as he floated over toward a dispenser on the wall, sort of like the one that Dr. Dala had used in the hologram facility to inject herself with Party Time Mentats… although the one that was ground up and deposited into the mold-laced tank looked more like the original kind. Yeah, that one had to be a normal Mentat, because as soon as the powder was shot into Dr. Mobius's tank, the floating robot seemed to become more aware of his surroundings.

" _Ah, there you are, Superego_." He said as if seeing them for the first time. " _Sure took your sweet time about bringing Tonya here, didn't you? Anyway, ahem… greetings, Tonya Greene of the Mojave Express, I am the great Dr. Mobius, Administrator of Big Mountain, and the one who is going to make your body whole again. Now, if you'll just step into my Auto-Doc over there…_

The Courier looked over in the direction that Dr. Mobius was gesturing in, and saw that there was indeed an Auto-Doc sitting there like the ones that she had seen at the Sierra Madre. The same ones that had ripped out Christine's vocal chords, and changed Tonya's voice to be a match for Vera Keyes, meaning that she was a little hesitant to step inside the chamber, especially when sparks suddenly shot out the top.

"Um… yeah, maybe we could hold off on the restoration for a while. "The Courier suggested. "See, I'm on this important mission to bring this suit I'm wearing back to…

" _Nonsense, science waits for no man_." Dr. Mobius interrupted. " _Superego, please insert Tonya Greene into the Auto-Doc_."

The brain robot laughed as it grabbed her again, but as much as Tonya fought back, she was unable to stop Superego from forcing her into the capsule, and slamming the door shut. Now in complete darkness, the talking out in the Forbidden Zone central chamber was muffled, but she could still hear Dr. Mobius telling the brain robot to begin the procedure, while reminding her to administer the anesthetic first… to which Superego replied that she already had… before chuckling to herself as if she didn't plan to.

Then the pain started; the Auto-Doc came to life, a dozen appendages locking onto and restraining her body while another tool started cutting into her back, making Tonya shriek like a banshee from the pain that was so horrific that… that she must have passed out. The next thing she knew, the Courier was lying on the floor outside the Auto-Doc, feeling the throbbing pain of freshly stitched wounds on her chest and back… along with the worst headache that she had ever experienced.

"Superego, you fucking asshole!" She screamed, trying to get to her feet, but failing twice. "I don't care how strong you are, I'm gonna rip you to pieces!"

She was no match for the brain robot, and Tonya knew that, but at that moment the rage she was feeling was so great that she didn't care. After her fourth attempt, when some of the dizziness faded away thanks to a dosage of what felt like Med-X, given to her from her stealth suit automatically… what a nice feature, the Courier got to her feet and stumbled over to the brain robot.

Leaning on its frame while reaching for the protective dome, she didn't know exactly what she was going to do to the robot, but… then realized that there was no point. Superego's sturdy metal body was motionless, and the protective dome was empty of both gel and the brain that it had only recently housed. But where had its… _her_ brain gone?! Only minutes ago it was locked inside of Superego, doing everything in its power to kill her, and now… wait a second… the headache…

" _Well, look at you, all put together again_." Dr. Mobius commented, floating around her in a slow, imperfect circle. " _As soon as I managed to retrieve your organs from the Think Tank, I put your brain into that old robot shell, and you must have been really hard to find, because Superego took a really long time to rescue you_."

 _Rescue her_ , Tonya thought almost in disbelief? Ever since locating her the first time, that ridiculous robot had been beating her and breaking her bones ever since their first encounter, but if the brain was gone… did that mean that her original brain had been placed back into her skull as well? She didn't feel _any_ different, but then again, she hadn't felt different after the _original_ surgeries, either.

" _All right, now that your heart, spine, and brain have all been put back where they belong_." Dr. Mobius continued, almost cheerfully. " _It is time for you to leave Big Mountain… not that you aren't a joy to have around, Tonya, it's just that I can't have someone as hard to kill as yourself, disrupting the normal routine of the Think Tank_."

Okay, now she was starting to get confused… if this whole place wasn't already confusing enough as it is. Apparently, after being captured by the radar fence and operated on by Dr. Klein, followed by dragging herself all across Hell's half-acre to find the other members of the Think Tank _and_ what they called essential technology, Dr. Mobius was simply going to kick her out? But why? Not that she wanted to stay or anything, but what was so important about the daily routine of the others?

" _There was never supposed to be a successful brain removal_." The floating brain tank explained. " _All of the others who wandered into the radar fence became drooling morons, but for some reason 'you' didn't, which caused my old colleague, Dr. Klein to become so focused on you that he ignored all of your friends. Speaking of which, they need to leave as well… let's see where they are, shall we_?"

Now floating over to one of the monitors that actually worked, Dr. Mobius had to ram into it once or twice to get the screen to work, and when it did an aerial map of the crater was shown… no, not a _map_ , but a live, moving image of the whole thing as if someone with a camera had somehow gotten up that high. Working the controls, the static-laced, sometimes flipping image zoomed in closer to the ground to where the red figure that had bene pursuing her was standing.

Hold on a second, no… the ghost of Captain Cosmos was not standing… it was lying flat on the ground while Julius… oh, Tonya was so relieved to see that he was leaning against a nearby wall trying to catch his breath, instead of dead. So, did that mean that he had defeated the seemingly invincible red figure all by himself? Wow, something like that actually made the Legionary seem even _more_ attractive to her. That, plus finally having some _good_ news for a change.

"I don't think you have to worry about finding the others." The Courier said as the image began to scan across the terrain. "They used a train to break out through one of the tunnels about an hour ago."

" _Oh, that was_ ' _them'_?" The brain tank asked, rather urgently. " _Thank goodness I was able to get that force field up in time, or else Klein or one of the others might have discovered the exit… ah, okay… I found them, and apparently they have company_."

For a moment Tonya was confused by how he had said that Klein might have found an exit, but then these thoughts stopped when the screen showed a close-up of the overturned train, with Corporal Fretwell lying dead on some rocks. The image continued to scan across obvious members of the Legion, finding that both Layla and Junior were hanging on crosses, while Gleeson… oh God, poor Gleeson was with Aurelius of Phoenix.

Having once been in the position that the brunette Trooper was now in, herself, the Courier turned away from the screen, not needing to see any more of what her forced husband was doing to the poor girl. Well, if there was a way out of the crater, she agreed that now was the time to use it, because no matter who had abandoned who, or what had happened between them, Tonya was going to rescue them… and she would need Julius's help.


	25. Chapter 25 History Lesson

**Greetings from Big MT**

 **Chapter Twenty Five: History Lesson**

All right, the objective was simple: Rescue Gleeson, Layla, and Junior from Aurelius of Phoenix and his entire _company_ of Legionnaires, without getting captured or killed, and then escape Big Mountain forever. Yeah, it was pretty straight forward, but as Tonya looked at the image of the screen of everything that was happening just outside the crater… she didn't know how the hell she was going to do it.

"Even if we turned off the radar fence." She said, making the image go back so that the whole crater could be seen. "Me and Julius would _still_ have to go back around to the Legion camp in order to rescue the others, so climbing over the crater wall is kind of pointless. There has to be some way to do this… we're in a pre-war science museum for God's sake."

" _Ah, the plots and plans of youth_." Dr. Mobius commented, moving sideways for a second when his thruster failed. " _Makes me remember back when Dr. Klein and I wanted to sneak out of here to go to the movies, but orders were that anyone trying to leave would be shot dead… ah, the fools never even knew we were gone_."

At first the Courier wasn't listening to what the malfunctioning brain tank was saying, but then her ears perked up when she heard the part about people never even knowing that he and Dr. Klein were ever gone in the first place. Could it be possible that Dr. Mobius had been the answer to all of her problems from the very start? If so, then why was there so much friction between him and the others of the Think Tank? He didn't seem aggressive at all, so what was going on?

In response to her inquiry about the Think Tank, the floating robot began to tell her a tale about how Big Mountain had been left untouched completely after the bombs fell, leaving those within save from nuclear fire, but trapped because of all the lingering radiation that permeated the air outside the crater wall. Eventually the scientists of the Think Tank, Mobius included at the time, came up with the idea to preserve their brains inside of robotic bodies, which was great at first, since they survived while everyone else slowly died of old age.

Over the first hundred years of complete isolation, though, Dr. Klein and the others gradually forgot what it was like to be human, running their individual experiments without ethics or even a purpose, resulting in such horrors as the flying insectoid _Cazadores_ and the coyote-rattlesnake hybrid _Nightstalkers_ … both of which eventually escaped into the Mojave, and both of which Tonya had encountered before during deliveries… and never wished to see again.

For the longest time the Think Tank was content to stay where they were, looping through their daily routine while almost forgetting about the outside world completely… that is, until the radiation started to clear, and the descendants of the war's survivors began to wander down into the crater. It was only then that the true level of depravity and inhumanity that the floating brain tanks had sunk to was revealed, not only with what they did to the people, but with the plans that they started making for the world outside Big Mountain, now that they knew that something else was out there.

With an extra-large dosage of Mentats coursing through his brain, Dr. Mobius did what he knew was best for the society that was just beginning to redevelop outside the crater, namely a small town called Shady Sands that he had taken an interest in, and spent his time constructing the radar fence, while the others were busy planning horrific experiments to inflict upon the budding society, trapping them within as soon as it was completed.

However, even with as depraved and soulless as the others had become, Dr. Mobius knew just how highly intelligent his colleagues were, and that it was only a matter of time before they found a way around the fence… so he gave them something to keep their minds busy. Hacking into the base code of their mechanical bodies so that an irrational sense of fear and hopelessness would be instilled upon activation of the trigger, he placed that trigger into the intercom system, and used it to declare his _hatred_ for the Think Tank, announcing that he was sealing himself inside of the _Y-42 Auxiliary Control Center_ , hence to be designated as a zone that was forbidden to them.

Now that they had a threat _within_ Big Mountain to contend with, the Think Tank eventually forgot all about their intentions to leave, while the daily threatening broadcasts reinforced their feelings of fear and desperation to the point where they hardly left their individual laboratories… until the news was spread that after hundreds of failures, Dr. Klein had succeeded in removing the brain from a live subject.

" _I can only thank the heavens that Superego, er, your brain found you when she did_." Dr. Mobius explained. " _You should be all right now that your brain is back inside your head… even though I had to force the procedure on Superego… you see, that suit makes you almost impossible to find with my scanner, and if you had brought it back to Dr. Klein, well… he might have escaped_."

It took the Courier a minute to realize what Dr. Mobius was saying, but then it all made sense, while also causing a knot to form in her stomach at the knowledge of how close she had come to fulfilling the Think Tank's goals. Apparently, Dr. Klein was planning to replicate the stealth suit technology, and then provide one for each of the other survivors of New Reno, before replicating the successful brain removal procedure as well… and then putting his and his colleagues' brains into the now vacant bodies.

"So they… they were going to steal our bodies, and just… _leave_?" Tonya asked, shocked but also feeling that she shouldn't be. "And I almost… made it happen?"

For the first time since encountering her own brain in the Superego armor, the Courier was glad that things had turned out like they did, since now at least she was aware of the true nature of the Think Tank. The good news about all this was that without ever seeing her or the others again, they would most likely forget all about the whole thing after a few years, but that still didn't help her with the problem of saving Gleeson and the others.

Using the monitor to take another look at everyone to make sure that they were still alive, she saw that Julius was actually on his way toward the Forbidden Zone by following Superego's tracks… oh, he was so _brave_ and _manly_ , coming to rescue her… _ahem_ , back to the others. Layla and Junior were still on their crosses, but… wait a second, the Lieutenant had almost worked her arms free of the ropes while… while everyone was watching what Aurelius was _still_ doing to Gleeson.

Tonya started to feel sick as she remembered once being in that same position, being held down and taken by that asshole in front of an audience… unable to keep from screaming because of how big he was… and with Aurelius it was never over quickly… he could go for like an hour at a time. Regardless, this distraction allowed Layla to completely free herself from the cross and climb down… only to be stopped when Junior said something to her.

There was no audio on the monitor, but it looked like the Lieutenant was accusing him of something, pointing her finger at him and then motioning at everything else as if… as if their situation was all his fault somehow… which didn't make any sense, beginning with the fact that he had been on the cross as well. With a final shake of her head, it seemed that Layla wasn't going to help him… and the stout man reacted to this by opening his mouth and starting to yell as loud as he possibly could.

Layla tried to get him to shut up, but it was too late; catching the attention of some of the Legionaries, the nearest of which aimed his rifle and shot her in the chest, before turning back around to watch the show. The Lieutenant had been thrown backwards by the high caliber bullet, crashing to the ground, and becoming still a few moments later as blood pooled around her body on the snow covered rocks. Wait, now Junior was calling to the Legionaries… apparently trying to bargain for his release since he reported Layla's escape.

Instead of freeing him, however, the Legionaries just laughed to each other, before that same one fired another shot, making Junior scream when it tore into his leg. The Legionaries laughed again for a minute, before the one next to him raised his rifle and fired a shot, hitting Junior's wrist just right so that his hand was completely severed in a spray of blood. This also freed his one arm from the ropes, causing him to partially fall off the cross… now just sort of hanging there by one arm and one good leg.

Now the Legionaries were saying something to him, looking like they were accusing him of something as well, sort of like what Layla had been doing before she was killed… but there was no audio so Tonya had no way to know what it was. Whatever it was, though, it had to have been bad, because the next time the Legionary raised his rifle, it was a large chunk of Junior's head that was blown off… and then they just left him hanging there like that.

"I have to get Gleeson out of there somehow." The Courier said, turning away from the monitor. "How did you say you and Dr. Klein used to sneak in and out of the crater?"

" _Well, technically we didn't sneak out_." Dr. Mobius explained, floating over to what looked like a small laser pistol, but brightly colored, and just… odd looking. " _See, we wanted to go see Love Sets Sail, since we were all in love with Vera Keyes… I'm guessing your great-great-great-great grandmother? But like I said, security wouldn't let us leave, so we invented… wait for it… the 'Transportalponder'_!"

Looking like a child's water pistol, based on Dr. Mobius' description, this thing had the power to literally teleport someone out of Big Mountain, and then back again, but with only one programmed destination: An old drive in theater just outside of Nipton, Nevada, where most of the Think Tank members would go to watch the movies… while Dr. Mobius would be in the restroom, apparently getting _frisky_ with Dr. Dala back in the day.

" _It hasn't worked in years, though_." The floating brain tank continued. " _I had this wacky idea to tie it into the radar fence itself, once, but the targeting program would have to be really specific, because it would hit everywhere at once, but can only take what its programmed to transport… such as only men, or in our case people with an IQ score of over a hundred and fifty_."

Well, it was a start… yeah, a plan was starting to form inside the Courier's head, but it would still be risky to pull off… especially the part about lowering the energy field over the tunnel so that the Legion… all of them… could enter Big Mountain.


	26. Chapter 26 Transportalponder

**Greetings from Big MT**

 **Chapter Twenty Six: Transportalponder**

The whole thing took a few hours to set up, mostly because of how hard it was to climb back up the crater from the inside to where the pylons of the radar fence were located. Now that Dr. Mobius had temporarily shut them off, seeing as the members of the Think Tank were huddled together inside of the dome, waiting for a delivery that would never come, Tonya was able to begin work on her plan to escape the Legion, along with Julius, once he had reached the Forbidden Zone.

It took a while for her to make him understand what was really going on with Big Mountain, along with more time to convince the Legionary that massacring the brain tanks was not worth it, with even still more time for the Courier to explain to him what Dr. Mobius' Transportalponder thing was supposed to do. In the end, Julius just went along with everything, beginning with having to connect a special cable and sensor onto the nearest pylon.

The whole plan was actually pretty simple, once all the backbreaking work was finished, that is. These connections and hookups to the radar fence would turn the whole thing into a giant Transportalponder, set for its energy pulse to react to anyone who was wearing Legion armor, since it was all so similar. Once that was done, all Tonya had to do was stand in front of the tunnel that the train had crashed through, and have the force field lowered.

Hopefully, Aurelius of Phoenix would lead his entire unit through the tunnel and into the crater, where the Transportalponder would be activated, instantly sending every last one of them to that old drive-in theater near Nipton that Dr. Mobius had described. After that, the Courier, Julius, and Gleeson would walk out of the crater, the radar fence and force field would come back on, and the Think Tank would remain trapped.

Of course, this in no way meant that Tonya wasn't scared out of her mind as she stepped into plain view, as far from the tunnel entrance as she could, knowing that her forced husband and all his men were right on the other side of that glowing wall. There was no other option, however, unless she wanted to stay inside of Big Mountain forever, while leaving poor Gleeson at the mercy of Aurelius. No, that was _not_ going to happen.

With Julius waiting behind cover nearby just in case the pulse missed a few of them, the Legionaries on the other side of the glowing wall were just starting to notice her through it, when the barrier fizzled out. No going back now, she thought as the guards ran back out the other side of the tunnel to alert their commander… then silence for a few minutes… followed by what sounded like thunder as what looked like a wall of angry men suddenly came pouring into the tunnel.

Like a wave from the California ocean at high tide, they came surging through the tunnel, spilling out into all directions like a cloud of giant insects, and making Tonya want to run for her life as… wait a second… where was Aurelius? Looking around at the faces of the men who were now charging at her from all directions, she was unable to locate their leader, but it was too late to do anything about that as the last of them came through the tunnel, and the radar fence came back online.

As soon as the pylons activated, a shockwave of blue energy was released in all directions from each one, filling the whole crater with such a brilliant burst of light that the Courier was forced to cover her eyes… finding that the crater had become silent again as everything powered down. Slowly opening her eyes as the light faded, Tonya found that every member of the Legion was gone, just vanished as if they had never been there in the first place, leaving only where their boot prints had stopped… a whole _three feet_ away from where she was standing.

Letting out what must have been the longest sigh of relief in the history of them, she nearly fell over from the shock of it all, along with the feeling of things finally being over. Julius was there to catch her, thankfully, and the two of them shared a kiss, before looking over at the open tunnel leading to freedom. The radar fence had resumed normal operations, but the force field was still down, allowing the two of them to run toward it… which felt like it was taking forever.

The whole time they were running, Tonya was scared that the barrier would come back up, but it didn't, at least not until right after they were through. Well, that was it; goodbye Big Mountain, goodbye Think Tank, goodbye untold troves of weird shit that they used to work on before the bombs fell… hell, if this was the kind of thing they did back then, maybe the bombs dropping was a _good_ thing.

Moving through the tunnel, and out into what used to be the Legion camp next to where the train had crashed, the only things left to do were to find Gleeson, and get out of there… but then she saw the bodies of Fretwell, Layla, and Junior lying on the ground. Okay, they needed to give their friends a proper burial after finding Gleeson, and _then_ it was time to go. Julius picked up a discarded machete gladius as they moved through the camp, discovering that Gleeson was still alive… although looking pretty traumatized by the whole experience.

The brunette Trooper was dressed in a ratty slave's smock with a collar put so tightly around her neck that it could be seen digging in, while bruises were forming all over the exposed parts of her body. Gleeson was lying on the ground, ankles bound and wrists tied behind her back, with a rag stuffed into her mouth, looking to be only partially conscious when the Courier ran over to her.

" _Warning: Energy interference extreme_." The stealth suit said, startling her as she knelt down with Gleeson. " _Unable to properly scan_."

Yeah, where were you when the Legion was closing in? Tonya wondered as she worked to get the brunette Trooper free. The bindings on her ankles were easy enough to undo, but the Courier was just untying her wrists when Gleeson suddenly woke up, yelling something into the rag. She thought that the poor girl was just scared from what had been happening to her, that is until Tonya looked back at Julius, and saw the movement behind him.

"Look out!" She screamed, pointing behind him. "Julius, behind you!"

It was Aurelius of Phoenix, coming out of hiding with a blade of his own for the kill, but thankfully the Legionary was skilled enough to be able to deflect the attack in time. _Clang-clang_ , their weapons clashed as Julius backed away, trying to keep his former commander from striking a blow that could cripple or kill him. The Courier picked up a nearby metal bar that was lying against some supplies, and started running over to help the Legionary, but it was too late.

In a flash of skilled movement, Aurelius' blade made a long cut across Julius' hand, making him cry out as he dropped the weapon, but the commander wasn't done. _Slash, slash_ , first hitting the Legionary across the shoulder, and then nearly cutting off his other hand when he raised it to defend himself, Aurelius continued to take the Legionary apart piece by piece, slicing the back of his knees so that he fell down, and then holding the blade to his throat to stop Tonya's advance.

"Drop the bar… _darling_." He said with a smirk, moving the blade so a little blood came from Julius's neck. "Yeah, once your friend _Betty_ told me all about the crater you discovered, I figured you'd have some pre-war surprise waiting for us in there… now go back there and tie her back up just the way I had her… or your boyfriend dies, you cheating slut."

Her mind raced for a solution, but there wasn't one, not with the tools that were available to her, nor with the time it would take for Aurelius to make good on his threat. So there was no choice but to tie Gleeson back up, with the Courier trying to reassure her that everything would be all right, even while the commander was yelling for her to make the collar tighter… and _tighter_.

"That's better, you see how much _easier_ things are when you obey me?" The commander asked taking out a pistol from behind his back with his free hand. "Now, get down on your knees, hands on your head, interlock the fingers, and cross your feet at the ankle."

"Aurelius, _please_." Tonya begged, getting down into the position that he wanted. "Please don't hurt Julius or Gleeson… I'll do anything you want, just let them go, _please_."

With tears starting to run down her cheeks, the Courier was sure that her forced husband was going to shoot Julius in the back of the head, but instead he just bashed the pistol into the side of his skull with a loud _crack_ , so that the Legionary fell face first into the snow unconscious. Now not taking the weapon from Tonya as he grabbed some rope, Aurelius tied Julius up just like Gleeson, minus the collar, and then started walking toward the Courier once the ropes were secure.

"You fucked one of my men behind me back." He said, stopping a short distance from her. "That hurts, Tonya, but I had my way with Betty Gleeson until she couldn't move, so I guess that makes us even. So, just like in New Reno, before you screamed as I burned your home to the ground, you and me are going to fight."

Just like their previous match inside of her apartment, Tonya and Aurelius were going to fight one on one, unarmed, which he proved by tossing his blade and pistol away. If the Courier won, then she, Julius, and Gleeson were free to go, with the commander's word that he would never bother her again for as long as he lived. However, if Aurelius won, the Legionary would die, Gleeson would be his personal slave, and Tonya was going to _have his children until her body wore out._

Right, like there was any choice in the matter at all, with what remained of her friends tied up, and no way at all to cheat in this contest. So she agreed to the terms, hoping that all her trials within Big Mountain had improved her fighting ability a little bit… given how horribly she had lost to him last time.


	27. Chapter 27 Old World Blues

**Greetings from Big MT**

 **Chapter Twenty Seven: Old World Blues**

For a moment all that Tonya could see was the color white as she slid across the snow covered ground on her face, but then the world became colored again when Aurelius made her stand up by grabbing her by the hair. The fight had started out going so well for her, too, managing to get a couple blows to her forced husband's face… before he _completely_ turned the tables on her.

 _Wham!_ Slugging her in the stomach, but still holding onto her hair so that she couldn't fall over, the commander struck her again, and again, and again, before planting a hard kiss on her lips, and finally backhanding her so that she fell down on her back. For a few seconds the whole world was spinning, causing the Courier's first three attempts at getting up to fail, and of course her forced husband laughed during her struggle… but not so much when she gave him a straight punch to the groin the next time he tried to _help_ her up.

Gasping in surprise as he bent forward, Tonya jumped up as fast as she could, ramming the back of her head into his face, causing the commander to taste the snow as he stumbled backwards before falling down. He got up again almost immediately, though, giving the Courier no choice but to run toward him as fast as she could, and slam her shoulder right into his ribs, sending him down again even harder. Unfortunately, she slipped on some slush, and fell down as well, allowing him to grab her again.

This time instead of pulling her to her feet, he grabbed Tonya's wrists, pinning them above her head while straddling her so that her legs couldn't move, either. Shifting his hands so that he could pin her wrists with one of them, Aurelius slowly balled up his fist, probably to watch her struggling underneath him for a second, before the Courier's vision went white from that first punch.

"You know, if you would just behave, none of this would happen." He said, his next punch making her spit out some blood. "But it won't happen _anymore_ , will it, my love?"

Two more good hits to the mouth, and Tonya was done… not because she was giving up, but because she was just… done. She tried to get up once he had let go of her, but only made it as far as rolling about halfway over… while her forced husband started walking back over toward the still unconscious Julius. She screamed and begged, promising to do anything Aurelius wanted if he would spare the Legionary, but it was no good… the commander picked up his discarded machete, stood over his target with the blade raised over his head…

And received the shock of his life when Julius not only jumped up to his knees, but also stuck a large knife up into his stomach. Aurelius dropped his machete, falling to his knees with Julius as the Legionary tried to push the blade in even farther, but the commander managed to head-butt him in the nose, putting Julius off balance. With an angry, yet pain grunt, Aurelius pulled the knife from his torso, raising it up to finish his enemy right there and then.

 _Bang!_ A small hole appeared in the commander's shoulder, making him drop the knife as it started to bleed, and then he was forced to find cover as two more shots echoed across the landscape. One thing that Tonya might have neglected to mention to her forced husband was that she _might_ not have retied Gleeson's rope as good as they should have been, allowing the brunette Trooper to free herself, and wait for the commander to be out of the way enough for her to retrieve the pistol he had discarded before the fight.

 _Bang! Bang!_ Another hit to the armor, causing some sparks, and then a good hit to the leg, Gleeson was now following Aurelius while Tonya tried to get up, pursuing him to the only possible place he could run… the tunnel that led back into Big Mountain. Once there, he was cornered, though, taking a bullet right into his palm when he raised it up to defend himself, and then falling on his back.

"You fucking asshole!" Gleeson screamed at the top of her lungs, slowly following him. "You stupid Legion prick! I'm gonna shoot you in the dick before I put one in your brain!"

By the time the Courier had managed to drag herself over to the entrance of the cave, the brunette Trooper was closing in on her target, and Tonya was internally cheering her on, because her mouth hurt too much to yell. Finally, after everything he had done to them, as well as probably lots of other women, Aurelius of Phoenix was going to die… at the hands of an NCR woman. In fact, she was just about to pull the trigger, when the force field behind the commander fizzled out, and he was struck with a beam of blue energy that made him… just vanish.

" _Ha, I knew I missed one somewhere_!" Dr. Mobius called, waving the original transportalponder that was mounted onto his eye screen. " _You should be safe now, Tonya… goodbye_!"

The Courier just stood there, dumbstruck for several minutes after the force field came back on, and Dr. Mobius floated away, presumably back to his Forbidden Zone. They had been so close… Aurelius of Phoenix was as good as dead… only to be blinked away to that drive-in theater near Nipton. Okay, Tonya, think of the good news… okay… Aurelius and his men were gone, Gleeson was rescued, and Julius was still alive… hurt pretty badly, but alive. Of course, now that they couldn't just go back and see Dr. Orderly, they were going to have to make due with the supplies that had been left inside the Legion camp… of which there were a lot.

Well, at least with all the winter gear and medical supplies that had been left, none of them were going to die from the cold, or from their wounds, which was a plus, but they couldn't just stay there at the edge of the crater forever. Maybe it was time to head south again, not too far south, since places like Nipton had to be avoided now, but there had to be somewhere they could go… maybe it was time to join the Mojave Express again… give up on the whole normal life thing, since the Legion was still roaming around.

"The NCR has a pretty big settlement in a place called Hopeville." Gleeson suggested as they worked together to patch up Julius. "It's a good distance south, but it's a lot better than this place… I just want to get out of here, you know?"

"I've been to Hopeville before… wow, must have been more than ten years now." Tonya replied. "We'll have to keep quiet about Julius' past, though, all right… especially if we want to be safe anywhere in the NCR."

"What if we just… left all of it?" The Legionary groaned. "We could… all three of us… we could head into neutral territory; a place called New Canaan, and then… from there east. I heard there's a whole other place out east, called, uh… the _Capital_ , or something."

These were all viable options, with Hopeville sounding like the best, and _closest_ one so far. The journey would be a long one, but once they were safe inside of a major NCR settlement, more decisions could be made. For now, each of them packed up as much gear, weapons, and supplies that they could carry, and said goodbye to Big Mountain… hoping that, as they walked away, they would be the last people to ever disturb the pre-war facilities.

 _As it had been in the years before the Great War, Big Mountain continued to be a place of wonder and scientific advancement, if for no one else, but for the six members of the Think Tank who had always been, and would always be its custodians. There, surrounded by the great mountain and radar fence, which kept them safe from the Mojave Wasteland, and it from them, the research, sometimes fruitful, and sometimes pointless, would continue as well._

 _Dr. Mobius continued his research and containment practices undisturbed inside the Forbidden Zone. The recent near-loss of containment didn't bother him much, though, as he forgot about it almost immediately after the rush of Mentats wore off. He preferred to use Psycho, anyway, which made it all the more fun to make his regular threatening broadcasts to the Think Tank… when he wasn't busy scribbling equations on the floor._

 _Dr. Klein and the Think Tank remained alive and unharmed as well, eventually forgetting, as predicted, all about the Courier and their attempt to escape from Big Mountain with new bodies. There they looped through their daily routines, disturbed only by the random appearance of new Lobotomites… none of which was able to retain their higher functions in the way that their one and only success had done._

 _There is an expression in the wasteland: Old World Blues. It referrers to those so obsessed with the past that they can't see the present, let alone the future. They stare into the what was, eyes like pilot lights, guttering and spent as the realities of their world continue on around them. But science is a long, steady progression into the future, and what may seem a sudden event, might not be felt for years, even centuries to come._

 _It can be easy to see science as evil; technology unchecked as the source of all ills, all misfortunes. But humanity is persistent, no matter what experiments, nuclear holocaust, or otherwise, it inflicted on itself. Instead of Old World Blues, there could be New World Hope… the hope of every man, woman, and child struggling to survive in the Mojave Wasteland._


End file.
